"Although not the first, the theory of invitational rhetoric offers a significant challenge to a strict definition of rhetoric as persuasion. Invitational rhetoric's link to feminism, paring of persuasion with violence, and the polysemic nature of theory, generated both interest and critique. This essay explores six common critiques of invitational rhetoric and illustrates the ways that invitational rhetoric is at work in the world in both historical and contemporary public deliberations. The essay concludes by articulating a link between invitational rhetoric and civility, suggesting that invitational rhetoric and civility are a means to create ethical exchanges in difficult situations" (Bone et al., p. 1, 2008). 

Bone, J. E., Griffin, C. L., & Scholz, T. L. (2008). Beyond traditional conceptualizations of rhetoric: Invitational rhetoric and a move toward civility. Western Journal of Communication, 72(4), 434-462.