The Rhetorical Situation
Created by Dr. Gary Cale
for the Language, Literature and the
Arts Department
Elements of the Rhetorical Situation
Most composition theorists agree that five
elements compose the rhetorical situation:
writer, purpose, audience, topic and context.
(Click on any of the links to the right and you
will be taken to that element.) An understanding
of each of these elements and its relationship
to all the other elements will help you throughout the writing process and when you compose
your audience and purpose statements for
your portfolio. So, get ready to take some notes.
You will be turning in these notes to your teacher
to get credit towards the 16-hour requirement.
Writer
Purpose
Audience
Topic
Context
The Writer
The writer has the most important role in the rhetorical situation
because the writer ultimately decides what goes into his or her
paper—unless of course an editor makes those decisions.
Inexperienced writers often view writing as a totally egocentric
activity. They produce what theorists call “writer-based prose,”
which serves the purposes of the writer, but not necessarily the
reader.
Just as authors must be knowledgeable about the intended readers,
authors must be knowledgeable about their own personal
characteristics, points of view, assumptions, and interests. These
elements help determine the kind of writing produced. In other words,
the more you know about yourself, the more control you have over the
myriad choices you make when writing an essay or even a letter.
The Writer
Who you are (at the time you begin to write) obviously determines to a
large degree what kind of paper you can or will write. We are all a
product of our socialization. Some of the factors—this list is not
exhaustive—that help determine what you think about on any given
subject include the following:
your age,
your experiences,
your gender,
your political beliefs,
your education,
your parents and peers,
your religion.
The Writer
For instance, I am a 50-year-old white American male professor with a
doctorate in education for democratic social change, educated at the
tail end of the 1960s, who has taught for almost 30 years and whose
parents were poorly paid teachers. How might I view the value of
education? How might I view traditional schooling practices? How
might I view the politics of education? How might I view teacher pay?
Jot down your answers to these questions in your notebook. Explain
your reasoning as well.
The Writer
The quick (and short) answer is that I highly value education, but hate
schooling, find most politicians to be hypocrites when it comes to
public education in particular, and think most teachers are
underpaid.
Is that what you thought? If so, congratulate yourself. If not, then
what led you to a different conclusion? Jot down your answer.
How I write (and think) is a reflection of what I have experienced,
read, and been taught. What we see (think and write, as well) is what
we’ve been “trained” or socialized to see. And that means all of us
have blind spots; we have unchallenged assumptions about the world
that colors how we think and write. Recognizing and challenging our
assumptions is vital to our writing and intellectual well-being.
The Writer
Let’s consider a few other factors in a bit more detail. Jot down
answers to the following questions. There are no “right” answers.
Age—How might a sixty-year-old would write about social security
reform as opposed to an eighteen-year-old?
Experiences—How might someone who participated in 1960s street
protest write about them as opposed to someone who had not?
Socio-economic class—How might a CEO write about the subject of
downsizing differently than a factory worker?
Obviously, people change their mind, so it is possible that a ’60s
protestor might find street protest to be unproductive today. So, it’s
now your turn. Who are you? Jot down some factors you are aware of
that may influence how you write and think about the world.
The Writer
So, let’s say you are writing a paper about buying a new car, the
reinstatement of the draft, or the cost of college. How might such
factors as your age, socio-economic class, experiences, family life and
so on affect the kind of information you would include or the positions
you take?
Pick one of the examples above and jot down how such factors listed
above might influence your writing. Write a short reflective statement
(1-2 paragraph) on what you have learned about yourself.
Purpose
Can you remember a time when you knew your purpose for writing? Jot
down as many examples as you can remember. Now jot down times
you remember when you were not sure why you were writing or what
effect you wanted to achieve. Which writings were successful?
Unsuccessful?
The second element we will explore is purpose. Successful writers
have a clear purpose in mind when they write. Students forced to take
composition classes often write without a clear purpose in mind. (I’m
partially kidding. At the very least students are trying to satisfy a
requirement in order to pass a class.)
However, normally, writers know why they are writing and what effect
they want to have on their audience. They have a clear reason for
writing. This is why we study composition.
Purpose
Knowing your reason for writing is of paramount importance. Writing
purposes can be best expressed in an infinitive statement: to + verb.
(This will become especially important when you have to write your
purpose statements for each paper in your portfolio.) In the past, I
have written
to inform,
to persuade,
to tell a story,
to describe,
to entertain,
to shock.
Of course, the list above is not exhaustive, but it does cover many of
the kinds of writing you have been asked to do in our classes. List the
kinds of writing you have been asked to do in high school, college, or
on the job.
Purpose
Let me expand on just a few of these purposes. (And by the way, this
concept applies to both written and spoken situations.) Recently I
wrote to inform a group of adult educators about the results of an
action research project I had conducted. (Recently my kids spoke to
inform me about a special feature on The Matrix DVD.)
During the last election I wrote to persuade newspaper readers to
vote for a certain candidate. (Yesterday my daughter tried to
persuade me that she could do three sports in the same season.)
Just last week I composed a blistering letter to some of my lazier
online students, partially designed to provoke them into action.
(Recently my son tried to provoke me into discussing a closed topic.)
Purpose and Genre
Related to purpose is genre. A genre is a category of writing. For
example, you might be asked to write fiction, an autobiographical
narrative or story, a news article, a review, an editorial, a process
analysis or an argumentative essay. The genre you choose hinges upon
your purpose and the needs of the audience or intended readers.
J.K. Rowling, an author of children’s stories, writes to entertain her
audience. Molly Ivins, a political writer, attempts to persuade her
readers to accept her ideas and to engage in political activity.
Just for a moment, jot down all the different genres you have been
explored in the last year or two. What were you asked to do in each?
How were the expectations different or similar? How did the genre
influence the kinds of information you included and the organization of
your essay?
Purpose
Successful writers, in brief, always have a purpose in mind when they
write. Successful students always understand the purpose of the
writing assignment they have been given. It does you no good to write
an informative paper (to inform) if you were supposed to write an
argumentative paper (to argue for your position and against someone
else’s position). So, pay attention to both purpose and genre.
Understanding the purpose of the assignment does not guarantee a
successful paper, but it does help. The same goes for essay exams.
Learning to read the “code” of essay exam questions is invaluable.
“Summarize the main points of authors A and B” is not the same thing
as “contrast the main points of authors A and B,” is it?
Audience
The audience or intended readers, the group you are writing for, is
affected by many of the same factors that influence the writer. Notice
I wrote “group” in the sentence above. Too often in composition
classes students imagine the teacher as their only audience. (Too
often, as well, teachers give assignments where they clearly are the
only possible audience. We need to work on that, even as you work on
writing papers for a broader audience.) So, when you formulate your
audience statements, carefully consider who might enjoy or benefit
from your paper. If the only person you can think of is the teacher, you
might produce a piece of writing with limited significance. Successful
writers reward their readers with significance. (See the St. Martin’s
Guide for help on significance.)
Audience
But for the moment, let’s assume that you have a wider, or at least
different, audience in mind. So, what do you need to consider about
your audience in order to write effectively? Well, at a minimum, you
need to consider the following:
age,
social group memberships,
education,
group beliefs.
Why do any of these matter? Well, have you ever felt like someone was
talking down to you, treating you as if you were a child? How did that
make you feel? Did you listen? Did the points he or she was trying to
make resonant with you? Or did you ignore them, darkly muttering
under your breath about what a jerk he or she was? If you are
anything like me, I would guess that the latter is true.
Audience
So, let’s explore this concept in a bit more depth. Let’s say that you
recently attended a fairly wild party, perhaps even a kegger. How
might you write a letter to your parents about this party? To your best
friend from high school? To your grandmother? To your priest?
How might you write a pamphlet about sexual harassment for
elementary school children, fraternity brothers/sorority sisters, or
work supervisors?
Jot down the differences we might expect to find in these letters. Jot
down the differences we might expect to find in these pamphlets.
What accounts for the differences you noted?
Audience
Undoubtedly, some of you are quite willing to tell the truth no matter
what and so your letters would be basically the same. Maybe wildness
at a party would not bother your grandmother, parents, or priest. But,
I would be willing to bet that many of you would chose your words very
carefully. You would include some details and omit others. Does that
make sense?
The same goes with the pamphlet on sexual harassment. Elementary
school children cannot understand concepts like “hostile
work/educational environment” or “quid pro quo.” Clearly, for this
audience the vocabulary would need to be simpler and the examples
given would need to be very concrete and based on life experiences of
young children.
Knowing as much as you can about your intended readers and their
needs is clearly important.
Topic
When you are given an assignment, what is the first thing you think
about? I’d be willing to bet that the topic is first thing you think
about—unless of course your professor assigned the topic. When
coming up with your own topic, you should consider the requirements
of the writing assignment (genre, purpose immediately should come
to mind), the required length of the paper, and the complexity of the
issue.
Many students attempt to write papers on very broad topics—which
usually produces a very general paper. Narrowing the topic, making it
more specific and focused, therefore, is a necessary first step
towards building a more coherent, complete, clear, and compelling
essay.
Topic
So, let’s pretend that you have been given a three-page limit. In your
notebook jot down which of these topics might be too broad? Which
might be too narrow? What might be just right? (Sounds a bit like
Goldilocks and the Three Bears, doesn’t it?) What factors did you
weigh in making your decision? Jot down your reasoning.
The causes of global poverty
The need for a new stoplight
Reasons to pass/not pass a proposed millage
The American social security crisis
The history of the Viet Nam war
The review of a new movie
A personal narrative
Topic
The causes of global poverty, the American social security crisis,
and the history of the Viet Nam war are broad topics andwould
undoubtedly require book-length studies:
However, the following topics should be narrow enough to work:
the need for a new stoplight, reasons to pass/not pass a proposed
millage, the review of a new movie, or a personal narrative.
Of course, the more complex the topic, the longer the paper would
need to be to cover all aspects. So, even seemingly simple topics like
an argument for a millage request might take more space than you
have been given in the assignment.
Context
Lastly, we must consider the context. Context is defined as the
“situation” or “occasion” that generates the need for writing. The
context is affected by the time period, location, current events, and
the cultural significance of events or people under consideration.
For example, 2001 newspaper editorials about terrorism were
motivated by the 9-11 attacks. Before this, terrorism was treated as
an abstract possibility. Articles about Iraqi civilian deaths are written
with different purposes in the United States than those published in
Iraqi newspapers. Nanotechnology is written about much differently
today than it was in the 1990s. Keeping up-to-date on the social,
political, and cultural climate of your audience can help you produce
current, convincing writing. (And using the latest sources helps too.)
Context
In outside-of-school rhetorical situations, the topic, purpose, writer,
and audience are all affected by what is going on in the world or local
community. We write because we feel compelled to speak or write.
Discovering that the College is considering raising tuition may prompt
you to write the Board of Trustees.
Clearly, if the paper has been assigned by a teacher, the occasion is
generated by your teacher. You are not writing because you want to
write (in many cases, anyway), but because you have been required to
write. In that case, you must find a way to engage yourself in a topic
that you do not find interested. Dull papers are often the product of
disengaged students.
So What? And What Next?
In short, you need to be aware that a rhetorical situation exists EVERY
TIME you sit down to write. Each time you write, whether it is for your
professor or for the wider public, you need to examine all the
elements of the rhetorical situation carefully in order to meet the
needs of your audience.
Until you understand the nuances of the rhetorical situation, at best
you will be simply guessing as to what you should or should not
include in an essay. The more you know about the rhetorical situation,
the better chance you have of gaining control of your own work.
Please print out this last slide if you wish 16-hour credit. Present this
slide and your notes to your teacher. This workshop is worth 1.5 hours.
So What? And What Next?
Undoubtedly you are currently working on papers for your composition
class and perhaps other classes as well. Before you turn in those
papers, make sure that you have carefully considered all five
elements. If the deadline is close at hand, show your teacher evidence
that you have used this workshop to guide your thinking about your
paper.
Please print out this last slide if you wish 16-hour credit. Present this
slide and your notes to your teacher. This workshop is worth 1.5 hours.
If you have questions or comments, please send email to
[email protected]. Thanks.