Ask ten different scholars of rhetoric to define the word, and you’ll get ten different answers. Dictionary definitions usually say something along the lines of “the skill or study of using language as persuasion” (the one I give to my students gets even more specific: The art and skill of using language to communicate and/or persuade”). I suppose the key words in these definitions are “language” and “persuade”. Analyze any piece of writing—be it fiction or non-fiction, a bumper sticker or a political speech, a text message or a tweet, a lab report or a love letter—and you’ll find that each one is designed to move the reader in some way: to thought, to action, to response. The language may make an emotional appeal, a logical appeal, or an ethical appeal. What’s more, each one of these aforementioned texts tends to be in response to something else and is part of an ongoing conversation. Moreover, when we write, be it a novel or a blog post or a marketing analysis or a resume, we write with purpose and an audience in mind—even if we keep a private diary, we write “Dear Diary,” implying an intended reader, even if that reader…

I was born just three minutes after my twin brother in January 1970. (Yes, I just turned 40. That’s another post altogether.) I came as a surprise to just about everyone except my mother, a buy-one-get-one-free deal, if you will. My four older brothers were thrilled to have another boy. My only sister was even more thrilled to finally have a girl. You’d be surprised how many people ask us if we’re identical, to which I reply, “If we are, then one of us has a big problem…” He loves to introduce me to his co-workers by slouching next to me to meet my height and saying, “See the resemblance?” with a mock straight face and sincere tone. My twin brother and I are different in every way. He’s tall; I’m short. He’s got straight hair; I’ve got curly hair (naturally curly, that is). He’s right-handed; I’m left-handed. He’s got brown eyes; mine are blue. He can listen learn to play a piece of music just by listening to it, while I can draw by copying from photographs. He’s very shy; I’m rather outgoing. We’re both writers, but he writes literary science fiction with a prosaic style that is quite…