Covino and Jolliffe, "What Is Rhetoric?"

Covino and Jolliffe offer a comprehensive definition of rhetoric and identify major elements of it. They discard a narrow definition of rhetoric that dismisses the value of it and reduces it to an external ornamentation. “Rhetoric,” in their terms, “is a primarily verbal, situationally contingent, epistemic art that is both philosophical and practical and gives rise to potentially active texts” (5). There are several resonances of Bitzer’s “The Rhetorical Situation” and Scott’s “Viewing Rhetoric as Epistemic” in their definition. However, as they themselves admit, this definition is also equally contestable. For instance, I would prefer to say that “rhetoric has been primarily a verbal art” rather than “rhetoric is a primarily verbal art.” With the rise of visual media and technology, there has been an increasing growth of the use of rhetorical strategies in visual culture and this is having a greater effect in the life of the people than in the past. I hope we will explore this dimension of rhetoric in the latter part of the semester.
As an introductory essay on rhetoric, the writers have been able to present an well informed (of new developments in the field) and largely uncontrovertible definition along with the basic elements and notions about it. Their discussion of the elements like rhetorical situation, audience and the canons of rhetoric provides us a window to the field of rhetoric. The beauty of the essay is the writers’ ability to offer a comprehensive definition and discussion of the highly contested field with simplicity, but without dismissing the complexities and complications of the field.