Introduction

This blog was created for a first-year writing course at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio. The course, like the blog, is called "Rhetorical Environments." It is intended to explore the relationships between the practice of rhetoric and the various environments - cultural, technological, political, and so on, as well as natural - we inhabit. Rhetoric, the art and science of persuasion, enables individuals to transform their environment(s) by mobilizing others to their cause—and because of this it imposes a responsibility to act ethically toward others and toward the environments we share. This blog will serve as a link between our classroom and the wider communities in which we do, or may, participate. We welcome comments from readers unaffiliated with Xavier.