What is the New Rhetoric?

The Age of Information has spawned a critical focus on human communication in a multimedia world, particularly on theories and practices of writing. With the worldwide web impacting increasingly on academic and business communication, the need has never been greater for advanced study in writing, communication, and critical thinking across all genres, sectors, and cultures. In recent decades, the definitions of ?new rhetoric? have expanded to encompass a variety of theories and movements, raising the question of how rhetoric is understood and employed in the twenty-first century. The essays collected here represent variations on these themes, with each attempting to answer the title?s deliberately provocative question, addressing particularly: --How the classical art of rhetoric is still relevant today; --How it is directly related to modern technologies and the new modes of communication they have generated; --How rhetorical practice is informing research methodologies and teaching and learning practices in the contemporary academy.