Introduction to rhetorical theory

Although it contained a great deal of useful information, it somehow managed to present it in a rote and lifeless way. There is nothing really wrong with this book, other than that it simply fails to be overly rhetorically effective itself. I did not read this for class and was hoping to extend my understanding of the power of language; this book seems to have the resources, but they are in such a raw and uninspiring form that mining them takes more effort than I would like. Nonetheless, if this happens to be the only rhetoric theory book you have on hand, it should be a good reference. The chapters on narrative and metaphor were particularly intriguing, but received only a gloss and weren't interconnected much with the rest of the book (unlike, say, the chapter on dramatic rhetorical theory).