Your workspace

The home screen

Home is the first screen you see after signing in. A time-of-day greeting, your name, the date and a count of your speeches confirm you are in the right place. Everything below it is built around one question: what do you want to work on next?

The resume hero

The large card at the top shows the speech you edited most recently: its title, type, word count, estimated duration and an excerpt. A progress bar fills toward a 1,800-word baseline (or toward your speech's own length, whichever is greater). If you have a speech in progress, the primary button reads Resume writing. If you have none yet, it reads Write a speech and creates a blank document.

On a paid plan with words in the speech, a secondary button opens the teleprompter for that speech directly. On a trial account the teleprompter button does not appear, because the teleprompter is included with Pro and Premium only.

Speech search

The search box sits in the header row, to the right of the greeting on desktop. Type a title or speech type and results appear as you type, filtered from your entire library. Arrow keys move through the list, and Enter opens the selected speech in the editor.

On a desktop or laptop, press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K (Windows and Linux) on the home screen to jump straight to the search box.

Practice cards

Below the resume hero, three cards represent the practice modes: Freestyle, Debate and Teleprompter. Each card links to its screen (on a trial account, the Teleprompter card links to pricing instead). The cards are color-coded: green for Freestyle, violet for Debate, amber for Teleprompter.

• Freestyle is a short improv drill. You speak on a topic without a script, and the session measures pace and fillers from your voice on your device.
• Debate lets you argue a motion against an AI opponent, then receive a verdict. The verdict is an AI judgment of the transcript.
• Teleprompter loads a speech onto a stage that follows your voice and measures your delivery.

Library preview and score pills

The home screen shows a preview of your four most recent speeches. Each row displays the title, type, word count, estimated duration and a score pill. A View all link opens the full Library.

The score pill shows Draft until you run a Full Audit from the editor. After an audit, the pill shows a numeric score with a color: green above 75, amber above 45, red at 45 or below. Scores are AI judgments from the Full Audit. They are not measured from your voice.

The quote carousel

At the bottom of the home screen, a violet-tinted card cycles through curated quotes about public speaking. These are editorial selections, not generated by AI. Dots below the quote let you skip forward. A fresh random sample is drawn on each visit.

Sidebar and bottom bar

The sidebar on desktop has two groups. The Workspace group holds Home, Freestyle and Debate. The Archive group holds Library and History. At the top of the sidebar sits the Rhetoric logo, and below it a Write a speech button (or a Choose a plan button if the account has no active subscription).

On screens narrower than 860 pixels, the sidebar is replaced by a bottom pill bar with five tabs: Home, Freestyle, Debate, Library and History. Scrolling down collapses the bar to a small puck showing the current page's icon. Scroll back up or tap the puck to expand it again.

The account menu

At the bottom of the desktop sidebar, a chip shows your name and plan. Click it to open a small menu with Settings, Help & support, and Log out. On a trial account, an Upgrade option also appears.

On mobile, tap your avatar in the top bar to open the same options as a bottom sheet.

A small question-mark button appears on the home screen, the Library and History headers. Tap it to reopen the walkthrough for that screen, or to open the Guide chapter that explains it. You can also replay any walkthrough from Help & support in the account menu.

The Library

Library is the full collection of your speeches. Each speech appears as a card showing its type pill, score pill, title, an excerpt and a word count with estimated duration. Click anywhere on a card to open it in the editor.

1. 1To create a speech, click New speech in the Library header (or Write a speech in the sidebar).
2. 2To delete a speech, hover over its card on desktop to reveal the trash icon (on touch devices the icon is always visible). Deletion is permanent and confirmed before it happens.
3. 3To rehearse a speech, click the Teleprompter link in the card footer. This link appears only on Pro and Premium accounts and only when the speech has words.

Practice History

History is your read-only practice log. Every finished teleprompter run, freestyle drill and debate lands here automatically with its duration, date and kind.

• A green microphone icon marks a Freestyle session.
• An amber monitor icon marks a Teleprompter session.
• A violet shield icon marks a Debate session.

Debate rows show the motion you argued. Teleprompter rows show the speech title. Freestyle rows show the kind label. Some rows carry a result pill (win, loss or draw for debates) or a numeric score pill. Not every session produces one, and that is normal. Verdicts are AI judgments from the debate judge, not absolute outcomes.

History rows are summaries. Detailed feedback is shown at the end of each session. The log gives you the headline numbers.

Pace, duration and filler counts are measured from your voice on your device. Rhetoric never stores audio. What is saved is the transcript, the metrics and any text you approved.

What each tier sees

• Trial: the full home screen with practice cards. Freestyle and Debate link to their sessions. The Teleprompter card links to pricing. The trial includes 1 Full Audit (up to 4,000 words), 1 freestyle session and 3 one-minute debates. These are lifetime allowances, not monthly.
• Pro: all practice modes, the teleprompter shortcut on the resume hero and in Library cards, and monthly usage allowances that reset each billing cycle.
• Premium: everything in Pro, plus live voice debate (60 live audio minutes per month).
• Lapsed or canceled-but-active: a lapsed account sees a Read-only pill and cannot edit speeches or start sessions, but the Library stays readable and exportable. A canceled account with time remaining sees a violet pill and keeps full access until the date shown.

When something goes wrong

Most workspace problems fall into a few categories. If you cannot sign in, the activation email or a password reset usually resolves it: see Fix sign-in, activation, and password problems. If a payment fails and you see a past-due banner, the Update card button opens the Stripe billing portal: see Manage billing, invoices, cancellation, and refunds.

If a practice mode will not start, check your microphone permission first: see Use freestyle drills or Understand the debate modes. If a score pill reads Draft and you expected a number, you need to run a Full Audit from the editor: see The Rhetorical Audit, originality, and usage limits.