What is Rhetoric by Covino and Joliffe

As with most other terms in the English Language, one would assume that Rhetoric would have an exact and pristine definition - seeing as its one of the oldest known words in our dictionary, it's rightly assumed so - but, because of the depth and lack of focus on this particular field or word, its completely unidentifiable to someone trying to approach it from a multitude of directions. the tiers that make up a Rhetorical situation are as follows; audience, proof, and the five "canon's" of invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery. Audience is debatable, as one never acknowledges an audience exclusively, but arranged a piece around the idea of how they will approach one.

It's definitely nice and welcoming to see someone trying to define a general term for Rhetoric, but because of how impossible it is to find a definition to something of that extent, it's still not clearly defined, but alas, at least an attempt was made to chip away at the never ending, vague, ambiguous world which is Rhetoric.