Invitational Rhetoric

Recently, I was introduced to Foss and Griffin’s 1995 Theory of Invitational Rhetoric. I had never heard of this theory before, but learned about it while conducting research for my Advanced Theory of Communication course at Regent University (Spring 2015). I read two journal articles (currently being reviewed for my Applied Research Methods course) that suggest the “possibility” of designing English and Communication courses using this theory as a base model. The articles were suggestive of applicability, but not thoroughly tested in a classroom setting. I am intrigued by this possibility, and I am thinking of using this theory to create a multi-modal writing course for first year Freshman Composition. I need to flesh out the idea more, and of course, conduct some research (of which there is scant in literature at this time). My hope is that I might be able to produce some scholarly work, perhaps a conference paper, on this topic. It seems to be gaining some traction in higher education, specifically in Writing and Rhetoric departments and groups.