This text is the result of my efforts to create a basic textbook for students taking my Introduction to Rhetoric course. I found that the textbooks that were available were all expensive and didn’t offer the range I was looking for for my course. Often rhetoric texts focus on only one aspect–the historical evolution of rhetoric or rhetorical strategies for communication or using rhetoric for composition. For this reason, even introductory rhetoric courses often require several textbooks. My goal was to create one text that covers all of these topics in the detail required for undergraduate, beginning students of rhetoric.

In this text, students will be diving into rhetoric. They will study the ways in which rhetoric and communication developed over time, they’ll learn about the different rhetorical tools that are used for effective communication, and they’ll practice using those tools in their own compositions.

This text includes a brief history of rhetoric from classical Greece and Rome to modern rhetorical theory. Then, the focus shifts to using rhetorical analysis to identify the elements of rhetoric, including rhetorical appeals, strategies, and devices, used in historical and modern communication. Finally, the text invites students to utilize all they’ve learned to compose their own Rogerian argument on a current topic.

It is my hope that this OER rhetoric text will allow faculty and students to dive into the study of rhetoric in an approachable and cost-effective way.

Thank you-

Dr. Karen Palmer

BA English, MA Rhetoric & Composition, PhD Women’s Studies