ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ancient concept of rhetoric and the rhetor the person with designs on an audience and who fashions his or her text using the semiotic resources at his or her disposal. It explains that all texts have a rhetorical purpose and are produced in order to get something done, whether were talking about a literary text such as a poem or the carefully structured closing address of a prosecuting attorney. While texts generally engage in one of three super functions: describe, narrate and persuade the fact is that for many texts these functions overlap; texts are usually multifunctional. Even literary genres such as the lyric poem and memoir can be thought of as having a persuasive force. While poetry is actually a form of writing, once we start rhetorically framing a poem, by describing it as a lyric poem, or a didactic poem, or a satirical poem, or a narrative poem, we are really talking about genres.
