"Debates are about argument, but they’re also about rhetoric, the art of discourse.
"Rhetoric has a negative connotation these days, but it shouldn’t. It has a great tradition. Rhetoric is simply the use of spoken and written tactics of persuasion. The rhetorician calculates her words for the effect they will have on the audience.
"As classically conceived, this is opposed to the dialectician, who uses words in an open-minded truth-seeking inquiry."
- Nathan Robinson in Current Affairs
