Inviting Understanding: A Portrait of Invitational Rhetoric

Edited by Sonja K. Foss, BA ’72 (Romance languages), MA ’73 (speech: rhetoric and communication), and Cindy L. Griffin, MS ’89 (speech: rhetoric and communication)

February 6, 2023

Inviting Understanding: A Portrait of Invitational Rhetoric

Inviting Understanding: A Portrait of Invitational Rhetoric is an authoritative reference work designed to provide a comprehensive overview of the theory of invitational rhetoric, developed twenty-five years ago by Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin. This theory challenges the conventional conception of rhetoric as persuasion and defines rhetoric as an invitation to understanding as a means to create a relationship rooted in equality, immanent value, and self-determination. Rather than celebrating argumentation, division, and winning, invitational rhetoric encourages rhetors to listen across differences, to engage in dialogue, and to try to understand positions different from their own.

Rowman & Littlefield, 2020