I don't have any advice on the rhetoric front, but I, too, have felt that I want to talk about rhetoric without really knowing anything about it--it's just a useful way of thinking about things. I guess that's why it was part of the trivium, eh? - Steele Lawman

I have sicced my good friend who is a professor of rhetoric on this post, as I think it is an excellent way of looking at things. she is digging up some stuff Right Now. - Marianne

Thanks! - lris

Heh. She says she and her rhetorician friends teach research exactly as you describe, but she can't remember where they got it from either. (*eyes bfister surreptiously*) She's casting a wider net, and will report any good findings she gets from colleagues/digging around in her office. - Marianne

Barbara commented on the blog itself. :-) - lris

Hmm. My degree is in rhetoric (although they called it Speech until two weeks after I got my degree), but that was in 1968, and I've forgotten more than I ever knew. - Walt Crawford