Defining Rhetoric

According to Lloyd Bitzer, in his article "The Rhetorical Situation" (1968), "rhetoric is a mode of altering reality, not by the direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of thought and action. The rhetor alters reality by bringing into existence a discourse of such character that the audience, in thought and action, is so engaged that it becomes mediator of change. In this rhetoric is always persuasive."

This will be our mantra as we move through our thinkings and musings of how every day rhetoric constrains and enables our thoughts and actions.