> slaving away over tiny little nuances of expression. I never took any courses in rhetoric, and a small part of me recoils at the very thought of it, as it seems at times stultifying.

I agree TEd ~ heh, it always seems to me a kissing cousin of the foggier reaches of post-facto grammar labelling! But I am happy to know some of the main roads on this map, and to sometimes take a stroll down a little-visited byeway.