Luuk Lagerwerf's research interests all concern audience effects of rhetorical design, e.g. the effects of humor or visual metaphor in advertising, rhetorical devices in political speeches, advance organizers in larger business documents, and narratives in news items, on intended readers or viewers. In all of these diverse contexts, potential effects are all related to genre conventions of the text or message under consideration. Therefore genre typology and theory form the theoretical background of my research.