The twentieth century is dominated by prose.  Never before have we been so thoroughly inundated by the written and spoken word.  Poor communications and the general absence of the written word made the ancient master of rhetoric a force, a prime mover in village, town, or empire.  Today, superb communications and the continued dominance of the written and spoken word make the master of rhetoric a power in democracy or dictatorship.  Witness the hold on the public mind of Churchill, Roosevelt, or Hitler and Mussolini, of the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.  All of these men used words with such powerful and telling effect that they transformed their eras--for good and evil. 

Newspapers, magazine, television, radio, and the Internet teach, move, and delight us quite as much as speeches, dramatic and poetic recitations, or storytelling delighted and moved people in the past.  However, there is a crucial difference: rhetoric permeates our lives today to a degree unique in human history.  When the President speaks, millions hear his words the moment they are spoken.  These same millions worldwide react immediately to his message, to the man, and to his country.  The power for good or for evil of the written and spoken word is today beyond imagination.

Today the written and spoken word is capable of indefinite extension.  It is incessantly extended through mass media--the press, broadcasting, recording, computers, news programs, television, and the Internet.  In the process, millions of ideas are analyzed, developed, synthesized, and revised.  Limited only by mankind's ingenuity, language now has a range of enormous influence.  Because we are deluged with prose of all kinds (critical, historical, political, technical, and business), our era has been described as an age of information overload.

The potential of the spoken and written word to foster human relations and bring mankind together as never before presents one of today's most significant challenges.  The search for a universal language continues while electronic translation devices attempt to bridge the gap that separates nation from nation.  For teacher and student alike, this is our world.

For the student, control of language has been so constantly repeated and emphasized that he is sick and tired of hearing of it.  Yet, it is a fact of life.  We simply cannot live without it.  To flourish and to grow as an individual and to become and remain a viable member of society, every student must know how to use language effectively.  In business and the professions, advancement depends on language control.  Communication among family, friends, and acquaintances depend not on physical proximity as on acquiring the ability to use language skillfully and persuasively.

Every organization carries out its functions through verbal and written communication.  Advertising, politics, science and technology, law, business, teaching and diplomacy all depend on a particular rhetoric.  Such rhetoric influences our lives directly when we work in these fields, or indirectly when we are daily exposed to the spoken and written word.  We simply cannot avoid the ubiquitous presence of good and bad rhetoric in daily life.

The consequence is that more than ever before, so much that we read, hear, write, and speak demands keen rational analysis, formulation of reasonable opinions, and exercise of judgment based on an informed public.  According to Thomas Jefferson, "If a [democratic] nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be."  And Martin Luther King warned us that "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."  For these reasons, knowledge of the workings of rhetoric and practical application of that knowledge is not merely an aid to modern life; it has become imperative.