ABSTRACT
For the first half of the 20th century in America, rhetoric was primarily the domain of speech teachers, who gave practical advice about influencing audiences through public oratory, radio announcing, drama, debate, and town meetings. The writings of classical rhetoricians like Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian were used to teach students how to choose and speak their words. Although visual elements like facial expression, posture, dress, and gesture were then, as always, encompassed by rhetorical principles, the emphasis was so squarely on verbal aspects of communication that many came to identify rhetoric with language.
