The study of bullshit, what the author calls "taurascatics", has been making a splash of late. It was Harry Frankfurt who tossed the stone: his essay "On Bullshit" came out in "Raritan" in 1986, hit the "New York Times" best-seller list as a book in 1995, and has been adopted, adapted, and criticized across the academy since. The ripples spread…

The purpose of this essay is to discuss current views of public writing and contribute notions of qualitative research and cultural geography to these conversations. The author also provides two pedagogical examples of how these contributions inform student writing and civic participation in various public spaces. The author believes that public…

Our article seeks to integrate alternative voices into traditional rhetorical study by turning to "Bitch" and "BUST," two mainstream zines that serve as dynamic examples of young women's rhetoric in action. We believe these zines are shaping the present and future of women's rhetoric. Their most significant contribution to the understanding of…

"Fresh, fearless, more or less brilliant stuff"--if you want to get hired. That sums up the importance of authentic assessment in writing and the unwitting harm caused by typically vapid writing prompts and rubrics, and rigid use of the so-called writing process. The point of writing is to have something to say and to make a difference in saying…

The author helps some kids make personal connections to what can seem irrelevant within the confines of classroom and curriculum. Interestingly, though, the most meaningful connections she has made with students have come not through quirky English teaching, but through her extracurricular interloping into the realm of social studies. The most…

Explores the argumentation of critical rhetoric as a millennial appeal, a rhetorical device aimed at establishing a new world with subsequent need for a new critical orientation. Argues that the advocates of critical rhetoric characteristically use dissociation as their primary rhetorical strategy. Concludes that M. Bakhtin's concept of…

Challenges the prevailing view of publics as relative entities. Reviews the two primary schools of semiotics, Saussrean and Peircean, arguing for the utility of the latter. Concludes that a public can be best understood as an ongoing process of agreement upon an interpretation, and that the public may develop a more sophisticated, insightful…

States that training in legal writing is vital to a lawyer's education and is required by the successful practitioner. Suggests that learning to write as a lawyer is part of the process that creates lawyers. Argues that rhetoric is only effective for the audience and occasion it was written for. (PA)

Discusses the link between writing and the metaphor of voice. Examines aspects of reading and writing that are promoted through such discursive connections and what alternative approaches to writing and reading might be emphasized in their stead. Discusses how practices in the classroom change when the voice metaphor is not emphasized. (PRA)

Contemporary rhetorician Richard M. Weaver believes that values are inseparable from rhetoric. For him, to be a rhetorician is to direct toward good or evil and to be a rhetorical critic is to determine whether that direction is the "right one" and/or judge whether the rhetorician "is a master of his art." To determine if the…

Discusses rhetoric as mirroring psychology. Examines Aristotle's three "pisteis"--the pathetic, logical, and ethical proofs, paralleling them to Freud's id, ego, and super-ego. Explores an adequate feminine psychology and a corresponding rhetoric. Outlines two models of persuasive discourse, the rational world paradigm and the narrative…

Examines the rhetorical constructs of the "question-and-answer format" as it has been used widely both in popular, informative, advertising, and journalistic literature. Considers its classical origins, its intent and effect, and the ways in which it plays on the reader's resistance. (TB)

Suggests that narrative structure should be taught as a reminder that human life is interwoven with stories. Suggests educators teach students the power of narrative and its relationship to its audience and the context in which the story is told. Compares the OJ Simpson story with a famous Norwegian folktale to illustrate the role narrative plays…

Composition studies is a plausible choice for a "potentially liberating influence" for psychology, because it offers a useful place from which to think about and critique the writing practices of the psychology discipline. One area in which psychology can learn from composition is audience. Writing guides for psychologists tend to speak…

By teaching about and considering the elements of visual design, communication can be effected and the needs of the reader/user more effectively met. As anecdotal interaction with children indicates, information seems to be communicated more effectively when the rhetor incorporates visual elements. To increase the ability of the reader to…