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Advanced Speaking Series

Commanding Discourse

Master Sophisticated Professional Communication

C1 to C2 | 6 Interactive Lessons | Professional & Advanced Learners

About This Course

Commanding Discourse teaches you 30 expressions across 6 discourse strategies, building a complete architecture for sophisticated professional speaking. Each lesson adds 5 key expressions and drills them under time pressure alongside expressions from previous lessons.

The course follows the Discourse Flow Sequence: FRAME → POSITION → NAVIGATE → QUALIFY → CONNECT → COMMAND. Each step builds on the last. By the capstone, you'll deploy all 30 expressions fluidly under pressure. Every lesson includes spaced retrieval, interleaved drills, and a 10-second pressure recall mechanism.

FRAME

Open with composure — buy time, weigh up, reframe

POSITION

Build arguments — state, support, explain, defend

NAVIGATE

Handle pushback — redirect, challenge, agree to disagree

QUALIFY

Calibrate certainty — hypothesise, predict, keep options open

CONNECT

Sustain extended turns — build, circle back, synthesise

COMMAND

Drive outcomes under pressure — direct, propose, summarise

Course Lessons

1 FRAME C1
Discourse Mastery
Master 5 FRAME expressions for opening with composure: buying time, weighing up, introducing possibilities, reframing, and adding caveats. The foundation of every sophisticated response.
2 POSITION C1
Argument Structure
Master 5 POSITION expressions for building arguments: stating your stance, citing evidence, explaining implications, acknowledging counterpoints, and strengthening reasoning.
3 NAVIGATE C1
Diplomatic Disagreement
Master 5 NAVIGATE expressions for handling pushback: acknowledging then redirecting, offering alternatives, pushing back diplomatically, playing devil's advocate, and agreeing to disagree.
4 QUALIFY C1
Speculative Language
Master 5 QUALIFY expressions for calibrating certainty: introducing possibilities, hypothetical consequences, expressing probability, keeping options open, and forecasting outcomes.
5 CONNECT C1
Cohesion & Flow
Master 5 CONNECT expressions for sustained turns: building on points, circling back, synthesising themes, naming throughlines, and elevating to broader principles.
6 COMMAND Capstone
High-Stakes Communication
The capstone. Master 5 COMMAND expressions for pressure moments: directness, bottom-line clarity, making asks, proposing solutions, and summarising takeaways. Drills all 30 expressions.

Begin With the End

A companion pathway on the habit underneath all of this: knowing where you will land before you speak. Three lessons, each built on a true story, take you from point-first answers to a calm pause instead of “um”, to holding your position when someone pushes back. Take it before the course, or alongside it.

1 LAND IT C1
Two Hours and Two Minutes
Lincoln’s 272 words after Everett’s two-hour speech. Build a three-part landing plan — point, one reason, stop — and use it to answer in thirty seconds.
2 PAUSE IT C1
The Teachers Who Learned to Wait
Mary Budd Rowe’s classroom research. Replace fillers with a two-second beat, name the number of points you will make, and stop on time.
3 HOLD IT C1
Take Off Your Engineering Hat
The night before the Challenger launch. Four moves for checking a challenge, holding a position calmly and owning what you do not know.
See the whole pathway →

Case Studies

Real-world case studies that put discourse strategies into practice. These lessons use authentic political, professional, and cultural situations to show why these strategies exist — and what happens when leaders use them under pressure.

CS NAVIGATE + QUALIFY B2+
When Allies Disagree
How do European leaders respond when their closest ally takes military action they weren't consulted about — and they're not sure they oppose? A case study in hedging, distancing, balancing, softening, and combining strategies, using real diplomatic language from the 2026 Iran crisis.

Memory Pathway

Want to lock all 30 expressions into long-term memory? The Discourse Bestiary maps each expression to a creature — giving your brain vivid images instead of abstract phrases.

Discourse Bestiary Pathway →

Ready to Command the Room?

Start with Lesson 1 (FRAME) and work through the sequence. Each lesson recalls previous expressions and drills them under pressure. By Lesson 6, you'll have 30 expressions at your command.