%0 Journal Article
%T Stories They Tell:  The Rhetoric of Recruiting Independent Consultants
%A Jacob D. Rawlins
%A Sarah E. Martin
%J Journal of Business and Technical Communication
%@ 1552-4574
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1050651918780196
%X This study investigates the themes that drive persuasive recruiting appeals, or stories, designed to attract new, entrepreneurial workers in the direct selling industry. It offers a rhetorical perspective informed by fantasy theme analysis on the themes present in the recruiting content on the corporate Web sites of three direct selling companies (Mary Kay, Stella & Dot, and Scentsy). The analysis indicates that rhetorical agency is a core theme in the persuasive recruiting stories for these companies. Offering a means for business and technical communication scholars to explore agency or other persuasive story themes in context, this study addresses how a rhetorical perspective is useful to assess recruiting appeals in shifting, entrepreneurial work contexts
%K rhetorical agency
%K fantasy theme
%K recruiting communication
%K entrepreneurial communication
%K visual rhetoric
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1050651918780196