Message
The What.
The message of a rhetorical piece is the What—the actual content of the piece. As in what the words say, and what they’re about.
Students often confuse the Message with the Purpose. Just remember that MESSAGE = WHAT. The Purpose has to do with the Why—the opinion rhetor wants to audience to have, or the action she wants it to take. Put it this way: PURPOSE = WHY.
The more I learn from AI models and their creators, the more it seems that colleges are heading in exactly the wrong direction. The future lies in the humanities.