ABSTRACT

Although rhetorical criticism has recently provided a profusion of claims that certain discourses constitute a distinctive class, or genre, rhetorical theory has not provided firm guidance on what constitutes a genre. For example, rhetorical genres have been defined by similarities in strategies or forms in the discourses (Black [1965] 1978a; Hart 1971; Campbell 1973; Raum and Measell 1974), by similarities in audience (Mohrmann and Leff 1974), by similarities in modes of thinking (Gronbeck 1978; Rodgers 1982), by similarities in rhetorical situations (Windt 1972; Ware and Linkugel 1973; Halloran 1978). The diversity among these definitions presents both theorists and critics with a problem.