Reader Response 1

TWO

Rhetorical Situations

s rART oF A coLLEGE APPLIcATIoN, a hlgh school stu-

dent writes a personal statement about what she pLans

I to study, and why. A baseball fan posts a piece on a :E Ner,,r York Yankees blog analyzing data to show

why a , - ":i;E:,= ;1;.0 pitcher

probably won't be elected to the Hall

of Fame. Etghty-seven readers respond' some pratsing his analysis' others

questronin! his conclusions and offenng their own analyses The officers

of a smatt Jo"nprr,y address the annual shareholders' meeting to report

on how the flrm rs doing, using PowerPoint sird'es to call attention to their

most important poLnts 'They

iake questions afterward' and two peopie

raise their hands. Our baseball fan sees on Twitter that the Yankees have

signed a star pLtcher he thinks they don't really need and flres off a tweet

,iir-lg so fhe student in our flrst example takes a deep breath and logs

on to the website of the college she wants to attend to see if she's been ac-

cepted. Good news: she's in Come September she's at the library' working

on an essay for her first-year composition course-and texting her frlends

as she works.

In each of these scenarios, an author is writing (or speaking) in a- drf-

ferent set of specrflc circumstances-addressing certain audiences for a

partLcular purpose, using certain technologies' and so on So it is when-

ever we wrrte. Whether we're texting a friend' outlining an oral presenta-

tion, or writrng an essay, we do so within a speciflc rhetorical situatior''

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2 ,4) Rhetorical Situations [1e]

r a l'"

(

Three different rhetorical situations: a lone writer texting (top /eft); a student giving an ora presentation in class (right); and members of a community group collaborating on a Project (bottom left).

We have a purpose, an audience, a stance, a genre, a medium, a design-a11

of which exist in some larger context. This chapter covers each of these ele-

ments and provid.es prompts to help you think about some of the choices you

have as you negotiate your own rhetorical situations.

Every rhetorical situation presents its own unique constralnts and op-

portunities, and as authors, we need to think strategically about our own situation. Adding to a class wiki presents a different challenge from writ- ing an in-class essay exam, putting together a r6sum6 and cover letter for a

job, or working with fellow members of a campus choir to draft a grant pro- posal to the student government requesting funding to go on tour' A group

of neighbors developing a proposal to present at a community meeting will need to attend to both the wrltten text they wili submit and the olal aISu- ments they will make. They may also need to create slides or other visuals to support their proposal.

E

[20]

.lose Antonio Vargas risl<ed

everythlng b/ revealing his siatus as an

undocumen!ec immigrant. See

how he navigared -Lhat rhetorical

situalion on p. I 078.

THE NEED FOR RHETORIC AND WRiTING

The workplace creates stiLl other kinds of rhetorical situations with

therr own distinctive features. Reporters, for instance, muSt a]'ways consid.

er their deadlines as well as theii ethical obligations-to the publlc' to the

persons or instltutions they write about, and to the story they are report'

rng. A reporter working for six months to investigate corporate wrongdolng

facesdifferentchallengesfromonewhoCovelslocalsportsdaytoday'The medtum-print, video, rad'io, podcasi' blog' or some

combination of these or

other media-also influences ho\'/v reporters write their stories

Think about Your Own Rhetorical Situation

ltisimportanttostartthinkingaboutyourrhetorrcalsituationearlyinvour writing process. As a student, you'll often be given

assignments with very

specifll guidellnes-to follow the conventrons of a particular genre' in a cer-

tarn medLum, by a specific date Nevertheless' even the most fulty developed

assiBnment cannot specLfy every aspect of any particular rhetorical situation

Effective wrlters-whether students' teachers' lournalists' or your

mom-knowhowtoanalyzetheirrhetoricalsltuatlons'TheymayConduct this anaiysis ,n.orls.iot.rsiy, drawing on the rhetorical

common sense they

have developed as wrlters, tead'ers' speakers' and listeners Particularly

when you are writtng tn a new genre or discipline-a srtuation that you'lI

surelyiace rn college-it can help to analyze your rhetorical sLtuation more

systematlcallY

THINK ABOUT YOUR GENRI

. Have yott been assigned a specific genre? If not' do any words in the as-

slgnment imply a Jertaln geme? Evaluate may signal a review' for ex'

,mpl., and' explainwhy could indicate a causal analysis

. If yott get to choose yoLtr genre' consicler your PURPosr ' If you want to

convince readers to recycle their trash' you r'vould llkely write an argu-

ment If, however, you want to expLain how to recycle food waste into

compost, your purpose would cali for a process analysis

, Does yoLtr gen'te recluire a certain crganization2 A process analysis' for

instance. is of::n oiganized cHRoNoloGrcellv' whereas a visuai anal-

,,rsis rr.a.,- be o.ga",rIed spArlALlY -and an annotated bibhography is

almost al','rays crganized alpnaoetically

z A: Rh.torical situatrons I Zf ]

How d.oes your genre affectyour roNx I A 1ab report, for example, gener-

ally ca11s for a more matter-of-fact tone than a fllm review

Are certain DrsrcN features expected in your genre? You would 1ike1y

need to include images in a review of an art show, for instance, or be

required to use a standard font for a research paper'

THINK ABOUT YOUR AUDIENCE

. who is your intended audience? An instructor? A supervisor? Class- mates? Members of a particular organization? Vlsitors to a websrte? Who else might see or hear what you say?

. How Qre members of your audience like and unlike you? Consider demo- graphics such as age, gender, religion, tncome, education, occupation, or

political attitudes.

. what's your relationship with your audience? An instructor or supervi- sor, for example, holds considerable authority over you. other audiences

may be friends, coworkers, or even strangels. what expectations about

the text might they have because of your relationship? You'd need to be

careful not to sound too informal to a committee considering you for a

scholarship, or too bossy to a group of friends'

.IfyouhaveachoiceofMEDIUM,whichone(s)wouldbestreachyour intenaed audience?

, what da you want your audiencefo think or do as a result of what you say? Take your ideas serrously? Reflect on their beliefs? Respond to you?

Take some kind of action? How will you signal to them what you want?

. Can you assume yout audience wiII be interested in what you say, or will you need to get them interested? Are they likel.y to resist any of your ideas?

. How much does yaur audience know about your topic?How much back- ground tnformation do they need? WlIl they expect-or be put off by- the use of technical jargon? Will you need to deflne any terms?

. will your aud.ience expect a particular orNnr ? If you're writing about Mozart for a music ciass, you might analyze a piece he composed; if,

however,you'recommentingonaYouTubem-usicvideo,you'dbemore likely io wrtte some kind of review

122 l THE NEED FOR RHTTORiC AND WRITING

I

To quote further from People's Exhibit A, your Twitter feed, "@holdupguy82

l'm in the getaway vehicle with the money and hostages. Where R U l"

. What about audience members you don't or can't know? It goes without saying that you won't always know who could potentially read your

writing, especially if you're writing on a site that anyone can access' The ability to reach hundreds, even thousands of readers is part of the

web's power, but you will want to take special care when your writ- ing might reach unknown audiences. Remember as well that anything

posted on the internet may easlly be shared and read out of context, as

the above cartoon shows!

THINK ABOUT YOUR PURPOSE

. How would you describe yout own motivation for writing? To fulflll a course assignment? To meet a personal or professtonal commitment? To

express your ideas to someone? For fun?

z F: Rhetorical Situations

What is your primary goal? To inform your audience about something? To persuade them to think a certain way? To call them to action? To en- tertarn them? Something else? Do you have other goals as well?

How do your goals inJluence your choice of genre, medium, and design? Ior example, lf you want to persuade neighbors to recycle, you may choose to make colorful posters for dr.spiay in public places. If you want to inform a corporation about what recycling programs accomplish, you may vvant to write a report using charts and data.

THINK ABOUT YOUR STANCE

. What's your attitude toward your topic? Objective? Strongiy support- ive? Mildly skeptical? Amused? Angry?

. What's your relationship with your AUDTENCE 7 Do they know you, and if so, how? Are you a student? a fnend? a mentor? an interested commu- nity member? How do they see you, and how do you want to be seen?

. How can you best convey your stance in your writing? What rorvr do you want it to have?

. How will your stance and tone be received by your audience? Will they be drawn in by it?

THINK ABOUT THE LARGER CONTEXT

. What else has been said about your topic,and how does that affect what you will say? What would be the most effectlve way for you to add your voice to the conversation?

. Do you have any constraints? When is this writing due and how much time and energy can you put into it? How many pages (or minutes) do you have to deliver your message?

. How much independence do you have as a writer rn this srtuatlon? To what extent do you need to meet the expectations of others, such as an rnstructor or a supervisor? If thls writing is an assignment, how can you approach it in a way that makes it matter to you?

123 )

Iz+) THE NEID FOR RHETORIC AND WR]TING

THINK ABoUT YoUR MEDIUM AND DESIGN . If you get to choose your medium, which one will work best for your

audience and purpose? printT Spoken? Digital? Some combination?

' How will the medium determine what you can and cannot do? For ex- ample, if you're submitting an essay online, you could include video, but rf you were writing the same essay in print, you,d only be abie to include a still shot from the vrd.eo.

' Does your medium favor certain conventions? paragraphs work welr in print, but powerpoint presentations usua,y rely on i.n^g., or bur- leted phrases instead. If you are writing onrine, you can incrude [nks to sources and background information.

. What's the most appropriate look for your RHEToRrcer, srruarrorril Plarn and se.ous? warm and inviting? whimsicar? what design e1e- ments will help you proJect that look?

' should you incrude visuals? wourd any part of your text beneflt from themT Witl your audience expect them? What kind would be appro- priate-photographs? videos? maps? Is there any statisticar data that would be easier to understand as a tabie, chart, or graph?

' If you're writing a spoken or ctigitaltext, shourd you include sound? stirl images? movrng images?

-.\c\r--=\-RfFrECT. Make a rist of art the writing that you remember doing in the last week. Be sure to incrude everything from texts and status upd.ates to more lormat academic or work-rerated writing. Choose three exampres that strtke you as qttrte dtfferent Jrom one another and anaryze the rhetoricar situation you faced for each one, drawing upon the guideLines .in this chapter.