The Syntax of Sports, Class 2: The Power of the Particular

What can we learn from baseball great Ted Williams about how to improve our writing? What can we learn we from the iconic ESPN show SportsCenter about how to manage information? And are you sure you really know what the word “peruse” means?

Explore these and other questions in the second volume of The Syntax of Sports, a series designed to recreate a popular course at the University of Michigan. Here are a few things students have said about the experience of taking it.

“Patrick Barry is the best teacher I have ever had. I have never learned so much in a class. I hated English my whole life until I took this course.”

“I feel like this is and always will be the most valuable class I've ever taken here.”

“I genuinely wanted to show up to this class due to the amount I knew I would learn.”

“I'm going to severely SEVERELY miss this course.”

“Every student should try to take one of Prof. Barry’s classes if he or she wants to become a better writer.”

“My writing is now 113x better.”

An All-American soccer player in college, Professor Patrick Barry created The Syntax of Sports while he was simultaneously earning a Ph.D. in English from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. He then clerked for two federal judges and worked in various legal clinics before joining the faculty of the University of Michigan Law School. The author of Good with Words: Writing and Editing, he also regularly helps law firms, state governments, and non-profit organizations improve their written and spoken advocacy.