This article excavates how style in writing was represented and taught in the under-investigated mid-twentieth century. I trace four editions of the textbook "Modern Rhetoric" (1949-1979), authored by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren; I detail how the book was surprisingly innovative for the time, despite its eventual re-entrenchment to a…

Re-reading James Moffett's work in the light of more recent scholarship in the humanities and social sciences, this paper presents a "deconstructive" account of Moffett's key texts. Understanding them as instances in themselves of rhetoric and textuality, and reading them at once "with" and "against" the grain, the…

The objective of this investigation was to analyze rhetorical strategies of Alice Walker in four narratives, namely, "The Color Purple, In Search of Our Mother's Gardens, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and Now Is the Time To Open Your Heart". As such, this study helps to expand the body of investigation relating linguistics to literature and medium…

Discusses nine senses which constitute a topical system for rhetorical critics. Each suggests a way of assessing the communicative potential of a variety of texts and is represented by the following critics: intentionalists, social critics, Boothians, critics of imitative rhetoric, formalists, genre critics, implicit rhetorical theorists,…

Paper presented at the Midwestern Renaissance Society Meeting, Urbana, Illinois, April 1970. (DD)

The thesis that style through the manner of expression provides the writer or speaker with the matter of his discourse is the subject of these eight essays. Articles are by (1) Louis T. Milic, who explores the implication of stylistic theory for the teaching of composition, (2) Martin Joos, who relates style theories to the national enthusiasm for…

As an initial step toward discovering whether a separate genre of women's rhetoric exists, this paper analyzes rhetorical forms used by Mary Daly in the book "Gyn/Ecology." The paper first outlines criteria for determining whether a form has rhetorical significance and traces the historical background of the contemporary feminist…

One of the results of the seventeenth-century revolution in learning was the rejection by scientists of classical rhetorical theories. The scientific societies established in colonial America reflected the European wish to replace the classic emphasis on "artificial" rhetorical style by making language usage more concrete, simple, and clear. In…

An analysis of the signification of rhetoric" in De Quincey's 1828 essay, Rhetoric" or Elements of Rhetoric"; a revision of a paper presented at the Rhetoric and Public Address debut program of the Speech Association of America (New York, December 1969). (Editor/RD)

In the period from 1950 to the present, there has been a progressive realization of the rhetorical character of scientific and technical discourse, rendering such discourse subject to formal rhetorical study. Audience is now seen as a formative influence on discourse. Technical writing must be tailored to audiences, not simply in terms of…

The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence, extent, order, and character of 18 rhetorical devices occurring in 100 trade books for children in the primary grades. The most frequent rhetorical devices and the total number of uses recorded for each device were alliteration, 1,079; onomatopoeia, 500; antithesis, 335; simile, 261;…

Discusses the themes used in "The Right Stuff," Tom Wolfe's story of the seven astronauts in the Mercury program. Reviews Wolfe's rhetorical and literary techniques used to enlarge reality and create a heroic mode. (DMM)

Discusses the effective rhetoric of Dr. King's "Letter" in terms of his use of refutative logic to address two audiences simultaneously, using one to provide a focus through which the other could be addressed. The "Letter" is adapted to both audiences on structural, logical, and stylistic levels. (JMF)