I was pulling together a brief history of rhetoric when it occurred to me that the internet can be a good thing. And wouldn't you know, indeed the internet is a great thing! Here's a quick history that is very good and precise. Please read over this site, and read over the links as well. It's not difficult reading, and you'll be caught up to speed.

Petraglia-Bahri's page at Georgia Tech.

As for Aristotle. You'll have a decent background after you peruse Petraglia-Bahri's page, but it's good to read over some of his original work.

Please familiarize yourself with excerpts from Poetics. After reading the excerpts, please go to our WebCT shell and post your ideas on our discussion area.

If you haven't used WebCT, log in as you would for NAU application. Look for a link with English 570 and my name. Go to "Communications" then "Discussion Board" and you'll see our prompts there.