Compares the current use of prose models to those developed by the Greek Sophists. Outlines problems with using professional writing excerpts as examples of rhetorical modes when they were not written as such. Argues that composition texts based on prose models err by implying that all writing fits into modal categories. (HB)

Explores Walter H. Beale's "A Pragmatic Theory of Rhetoric," and places it in relation to other theories. Discusses Beale's semiotic theory of written discourse, its contribution, and relates Beale's aims to the rhetorical theories of James Kinnevey and James Britton. (SR)

Prominent contemporary theories of academic argument are based upon jurisprudential models where argument is analogous to forensic discourse. Yet the implications of classical notions of testimony and the rhetorical function of citation make academic argument more a deliberative activity than the forensic one suggested by contemporary theorists.…

Explains the rhetorical implications of actions and states in various models of procedural discourse and in specific writer strategies. Considers more flexible alternatives to the "streamlined-step" model. States that one goal of technical communicators may be to help ensure that systems are designed, developed, implemented, and supported with…