Rhetoric. . . this is the use of words in a persuasive manner to accomplish a goal. Rhetoric is used in all parts of life: talking, walking, speaking, rambling, singing, buying, reading, writing, dressing, listening, painting, cooking, vandalizing, driving, even showering. This is public rhetoric no matter how private we think our lives are. These are all places that a choice can be made. One chooses to speak, to walk, to ramble, to dress, to shower. From each of these choices the public is able to see or hear about the choice that was made. If one were to not dress people would see that, if one were not not shower people would smell that, if one were to speak people would hear that, if one were to cook people would taste that, and if one were to vandalize with fire people would feel that. Rhetoric is contained in all of these things because a message is trying to be conveyed, and the way in which it is displayed is the most persuasive way the conveyer deemed it to be displayed and still have a message, a point.
With each of these messages the public interprets them in many different ways. A person's ability to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel these ideas, interpret them, and then understand them is public literacy. No too people are alike just as no to messages are totally alike. These differences come from where one comes from, where one is, where he/she plans on going, personality, ideologies, and schooling. Each set of circumstances that enter into a person's life increases or decreases upon their public literacy. Just as one can live in the middle of America and not understand the act and art of graffiti in coastal cities so too can a coastal city person not understand why some in middle America choose to drive huge trucks and go muddin. That's not to say that there are not those that do understand in this way; the point is that is it upbringing and who we are that determines the amount of the multitude of public rhetoric one can understand. This knowledge can be expanded to accommodate many of the world publics.