This article offers a way of using the theory of audience design--how speakers position different audience groups as main addressees, overhearers, or bystanders--for written discourse. It focuses on main addressees, that is, those audience members who are expected to participate in and respond to a speaker's utterances. The text samples are…

Researchers studying technology development often examine how rhetorical activity contributes to technologies' design, implementation, and stabilization. This article offers a possible methodology for studying one role of rhetorical activity in technology development: knowledge consolidation analysis. Applying this method to an exemplar case, the…

Examines sociohistorically situated data to provide an understanding of conceptual metaphor using the phrase "trade is war." Describes the workings of image-schematically compatible or incompatible metaphors as they operate in the concrete discourse of trade. Finds that metaphors are fundamentally responsive and are therefore implicated in a…

Fahnestock and Secors "The Rhetoric of Literary Criticism" characterized literary criticism of the 1970s as conservative and self-celebratory. However, although literary theory has since undergone significant change, few rhetorical analyses of recent literary criticism as the preferred genre of a disciplinary discourse community have been…

Examines the use of ironic quotation in academic writing. Considers differences in irony within published exchanges, conference discussions, and unpublished papers. Argues that irony begins with rhetorical relations (between quoting writer, quoted writer, and reader) which leads to discipline-specific assumptions and interpretations. (KEH)

Reviews how temporality has figured in rhetorical studies of genre through the notions of kairos and temporal exigence. Presents two models of time, "clock time" and "process time," as a means for representing temporal dimensions of rhetorical contexts and genre activity. Examines interplay between these temporal models and…

This study investigates the practice of presenting multiple supporting examples in parallel form. The elements of parallelism and its use in argument were first illustrated by Aristotle. Although real texts may depart from the ideal form for presenting multiple examples, rhetorical theory offers a rationale for minimal, parallel presentation. The…

Investigates Aristotle's metaphorical definitions of rhetoric in book 1 of his "Rhetoric," using his own theory of metaphor as a measure of his practice in these definitions. Indicates that Aristotle's practice in the situation does not match his theory, a circumstance that has consequences for one's reading of the "Rhetoric."…

From a rhetorical perspective, Mendel's work and its reception elicit two important questions: (a) why were Mendel's arguments so compelling to 20th century biologists? And (b) why where they so roundly ignored by his contemporaries? The focus of this article is to examine the latter question while commenting on the former by employing several…

Examines how macro-level social and political structures affect micro-level literate actions in classrooms and vice versa. Synthesizes Yrjo Engestrom's systems version of Vygotskian cultural-historical activity theory with Charles Bazerman's theory of genre systems to understand the relationship between writing in school and writing in other…

Considers how some forms of communication accommodate distance between sender and receiver. Formulates concepts and axioms that serve as principles for the general communication context, distance or proximate. Discusses how these concepts matter to theoretical models and the teaching of communications. (HB)

Takes issue with standard characterizations of Japanese expository prose styles on the grounds that they view language and culture as exotic and static. Draws on multiple interpretations of ki-sho-ten-ketsu (classical rhetoric) offered by composition specialists in Japan. Suggests that researchers and writing teachers should be wary of…

Explores features of conference proposals submitted to the Conference on College Composition in 1989, 1990, and 1992--345 abstracts in total. Results showed that successful abstracts were more likely to follow generic qualities associated with "unsolicited proposals"; foundational discourse remained constant throughout the abstracts but…

Examines persuasive text, first describing it and discussing it with reference to relevant philosophy and rhetoric, and then asking whether it is successful: do written texts change the minds of their readers? Notes that research on designing text to disabuse students of scientific misconceptions points to text features that authors could use to…

Recounts an earlier case analysis describing ethical differences in collectivist and individualistic rhetorics experienced by a writer in a literature seminar and a public relations office. Examines how this analysis is problemmatized by alternative interpretations demonstrating how collectivist rhetoric practiced by researchers involves the…