SOURCE: Lassner, Phyllis. “Feminist Responses to Rogerian Argument.” Rhetoric Review 8, no. 2 (spring 1990): 220-32.

In the following essay, Lassner examines the responses of female writing students to Rogerian persuasive techniques.

When Rogerian argument was introduced in the 1970s, it was hailed as a heuristic which would “break the stalemate” that occurs when writers close themselves off from feeling the validity of an opposing argument (Hairston, “Carl Rogers' Alternative to Traditional Rhetoric” 373). Young, Becker, and Pike presented Rogerian argument as an alternative to traditional argument on the grounds that instead of using logic to destroy the opponent's case and legitimize your own, “Rogerian argument … serves an exploratory function, helping you to analyze the conditions under which the position of either side is valid” (Rhetoric: Discovery and Change 282). In more recent years, the bloom has been fading from those enthusiastic claims, and yet Rogerian argument is still very appealing to those...