Genre studies are offered as a needed alternative to the historical approach to the study of public speaking. Five ways to classify rhetorical genres are suggested: (1) by the changes which messages produce in audiences, (2) by the dominant methods or characterizing strategies of a message, (3) by style, (4) by culture or world view, and (5) by form in its widest sense. Several examples of courses that could be constructed in each of these divisions are provided. A brief discussion of some of the kinds of genres not worth study concludes the paper. (TO)