It is the nature of rhetorical discourses that they demand commitments – sometimes total commitments – commitments about what is real and what is good and what is obligatory and what is necessary. And that is why rhetorical criticism is not an enterprise for triflers. To the extent that a rhetorical critic works in good faith, he abandons himself to the requirements of an idea or to the texture of an alien experience. In more senses than one, the critic is an actor. (336)

Black, Edwin. A Note on Theory and Practice in Rhetorical Criticism. The Western Journal of Speech Communication 44 (Fall 1980), 330-336.