The paper focuses on the continuity of rhetorical studies at the technical university. An analysis of rhetorical principles, described in I.S.Rizhsky’s «Rhetoric Practice» (1796), is carried out. The author summarized methodical principles of teaching rhetoric at the first technical university of Russia – Saint-Petersburg Mining College. A comparison has been made between I.S.Rizhsky’s work, classical treatises and the first Russian scientific rhetoric – «Rhetoric» by M.V.Lomonosov. It has been found that, following Lomonosov’s scientific theory, I.S.Rizhsky created an original educational-scientific genre (rhetoric practice), addressed to a specific audience – students of Saint-Petersburg Mining College. The role of I.S.Rizhsky’s scientific and educational activities in teaching humanities at the technical university has been defined. The paper justifies the necessity to republish works of scientists from 18^th-19^th centuries, whose names have left their marks in the development history of rhetoric as a study of Russian oratory traditions. The paper also describes material of contemporary educational programs on the culture of speech, which focus on the historical tradition of Russian rhetoric. In particular, it has been noted that lecture and practical courses imply not only orthology studies (correctness, clearness, orderliness, expressiveness of speech), but also acquaintance with works on the history of European and Russian rhetoric.

This article is devoted to methodological aspects of modern computer technologies introduction to liberal arts teaching in technical higher school. Question of reasonability of lectures accompaniment by multimedia presentation is depicted. The experience of Russian Language and Culture of Speech lectures multimedia presentation creation is described in the article, recommendations to blocks of presentation preparation are given, some methods of working with Microsoft PowerPoint program with the help of which studying process could be done more effective, multisided, attractive, dynamic, possible to stimulate students’ creative activity are described.

This paper deals with the problem of professional communicative training of a specialist, a technical higher school graduate. Some experience of working with different genres of written and oral forms of speech is analyzed hereinafter.

This article analyses the linguistic means of creating a speech portrait in S. Dovlatov's works. An attempt is made to describe such means as antithesis, irony. The lexical units characterizing the speech of literary characters are analyzed. The classification of dialogues in which relationships of characters are presented is given.

The article considers the problems of teaching methodology of the course "Russian language and culture of speech" in a technical university. The question of the necessity of integration of rhetoric and functional stylistics as aspects of this academic discipline is considered. The article describes the experience of formation of skills in the sphere of academic eloquence in freshmen students of different specialties studying at the St. Petersburg State Mining Institute. In particular, it offers methodological recommendations for organizing a student academic scientific conference in practical classes on the course "Russian Language and Culture of Speech".