Suggests that understanding the "tools of rhetorical analysis" in relation to persuasion can help business communication teachers better incorporate the concept of consensus building into their courses. Discusses incorporating rhetorical techniques (using metaphors, calling on readers' schemata, and using narratives) into a business…

Examines persuasive text, first describing it and discussing it with reference to relevant philosophy and rhetoric, and then asking whether it is successful: do written texts change the minds of their readers? Notes that research on designing text to disabuse students of scientific misconceptions points to text features that authors could use to…

Compares textual notes taken by seventh-grade students on the 1954 school desegregation case, "Brown v. Board of Education," to those taken by legal professionals. Shows that the students rejected what they saw as violations of conventions of Supreme Court argument, while the winning argument in the actual case plays with conventions by…