ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses designs and formulas that the structure — the arrangement and sequencing of message elements. It deals with form — the patterns of meaning audiences generate when they take in a message. Form refers to the shape of meaning, how ideas are linked together by audiences. The chapter explores genre — a class of messages sharing important structural and content features created to meet the expectations of an audience. It shows how message structure interacts with expected patterns of meaning to produce persuasion. Structure and form are a complex business, but examining rule following and rule violating is almost always profitable. The chapter presents the thesis is that by knowing who follows rhetorical rules and who does not, the critic can learn much about the whys and wherefores of these rules. All critics are genre critics, whether they know it or not.
