“…One might ask why this was not the first question, but I hope the reader has by now developed a sense that this might be a relatively nuanced query, depending for its answer on both a deeply contextualized historical understanding of business discourse and a sophisticated understanding of rhetorical theory. Over the past quarter century, an ongoing thread of discussion in our journals has addressed the definition and scope of the field of business communication (see especially Carmichael, 1996;Kostelnick, 1998;Krapels & Arnold, 1996;Reinsch, 1991;Rentz, 1993;Shaw, 1993;Shelby, 1993;Smeltzer, Glab, & Golen, 1983;White-Mills & Rogers, 1996;Zorn, 2002). While the impetus has most often been a political and pragmatic attempt to gain institutional legitimacy and support for a recognized position within the academy, the underlying theoretical issues bear closer examination.…”