Recently, genre studies have become increasingly important in the area of rhetorical criticism. This method of analysis is based on the assumption that rhetorics vary situationally, like situations will produce like rhetorics, antecedent rhetorical events significantly affect the creative product, and analogy is more important than anomaly when assessing the relationship between two or more rhetorics. Subject areas most suited to the genre method are those in which seemingly separate rhetorical events culminate naturally into a single thematic strand. This type of analysis is actually not at odds with traditional ("single event") critical methods. Rather, as an outgrowth of traditional criticism, genre study is justified because it is most likely to promote the advancement of rhetorical criticism, cross cultural and historical lines, and illuminate the situationally similar strategies and tactics which produce rhetorics. (KS)