18.1: The Rhetorical Situation--Reading Selection
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)14.1 Understanding the situation
What’s a text?
A text is anything that can be “read,” i.e., consumed and interpreted. A book, an article, a YouTube video, a TikTok, a presidential campaign poster, and a syllabus are all examples of texts.
What is rhetoric?
Rhetoric is persuasive communication, or the art of persuasive speaking, writing, or otherwise communicating through a text. The persuasion that rhetoric refers to is usually understood as intentional, e.g. the creator of a text must have the intention to persuade in order for it to be rhetorically analyzed. However, many rhetoricians (people who study rhetoric and/or carefully craft their own text based on the rules of rhetoric) argue that every communication is rhetoric because we are always trying to persuade someone of something.
The term “rhetoric” is often pejoratively used to refer to language or texts that are clever or cunning, but lacking substance, or in reference to a text that is artfully done but with scarce, poor-quality, or false content. For instance, someone might say “all his rhetoric is a waste of time” regarding a politician’s floral descriptions and promises he couldn’t possibly fulfill in his role. In this way, rhetoric is sometimes used to indicate trickery or deception. These are colloquial understandings of rhetoric: the studying and employing of rhetorical principles from the Aristotelian method that we’re using, is actually a pursuit of truth. By considering the audience’s characteristics, experiences, needs, and desires and then tailoring the messaging of the content to that, rhetoric seeks to convey the content—the truthful content—in ways that the audience is able and/or willing to consume. Rhetoric is misused when, in considering the audience, it seeks to manipulate the truth or the will of the audience.
In short, rhetoric refers to how something is said, written, or otherwise conveyed.
The Rhetorical Situation1
The Rhetorical Situation refers to the circumstances that bring texts into existence. The concept emphasizes that writing is a social activity, produced by people in particular situations for particular goals. It helps individuals understand that, because writing is highly situated and responds to specific human needs in a particular time and place, texts should be produced and interpreted with these needs and contexts in mind.
Thinking carefully about the situations in which you write, or produce texts, can lead you to produce more meaningful texts that are appropriate for the situation and responsive to others’ needs, values, and expectations. This is true whether writing a workplace e-mail or completing a college writing assignment.
As a reader and consumer of texts, considering the rhetorical situation can help you develop a more detailed understanding of others and their texts.
Basically, the rhetorical situation can help writers and readers think through and determine why texts exist, what they aim to do, and how they do it in particular situations.
The author/creator’, the topic, the context, the purpose, and audience constitute the Rhetorical Situation in which the rhetoric occurs. While these five elements are treated as five separate things, they’re interconnected. For instance, who the author is greatly influences the topic, and the context and the author themselves shape the purpose.
1 Partial Section Source Attribution:
Jory, Justin. “The Rhetorical Situation.” Pressbooks, 2016. https://pressbooks.pub/openenglishat...cal-situation/.
What do we need to know about the author/creator?
We don’t need their life story, but we need to know what enables them to speak/write credibly on the subject. This credibility can come from identity within a group resulting in relevant experience, verified experiences, academic degrees, or other certified training and education. You’ll notice the common thread through all of those is that an outside source asserts competency or experience in a particular area. There have been numerous nonfiction or memoir writers who were discredited because it was ultimately found out that the experience they claimed was fake. So, even though their narratives remained compelling stories, they lost their ability to speak credibly on the subject. To this point, the author/creator’s character and reputation are also very important. Think of any group or individual regarded as a “trusted news source”-why is that so? All the reporters, fact-checkers, and journalists cannot possibly have all the degrees and experiences to allow them to credibly speak on topics as diverse as Israeli politics to deforestation in Western Cananda. While their educations and experiences provide them with a framework of ethical journalism, we, the audience, trust such news organizations largely because of reputation.
What’s an author’s purpose?
The purpose is why the author creates the text. For this course, and arguably in general, their purpose will always be to persuade the audience of something, implicitly or explicitly. The questions for us to discern are, what exactly is the author/creator trying to persuade their audience of? How are they going about this persuasion, and how effective or persuasive is that argument?
What’s an intended audience and how is that different from the audience?
Despite the origin of the word “audience” suggesting those who hear a message, for our purposes, is anyone who the author expects will “read” the text. As the terms then suggest, the intended audience is the audience the author intended to create the text for, whereas the audience is anyone who happens upon the text and consumes it... Note that the intended audience may be quite different from the audience, especially since the advent of social media. For example, the German live satirical/comedic news show Die Anstalt is produced in Germany and uses the German language exclusively: the shows intended audience, generally, is the German public, in the time frame in which the show airs. However, since many of Die Anstalt’s episodes have been uploaded to Youtube with subtitles in a variety of languages, their audience has become international and not tied to a given time. The intended audience’s context or situation and knowledge must be considered when rhetorically analyzing a text.
What’s the topic?
The topic refers to the issue at hand, the major subjects the writer, text, and audience address.
What’s the context?
The context refers to other direct and indirect social, cultural, geographic, political, and institutional factors that likely influence the writer, text, and audience in a particular situation. This includes, but isn’t limited to the following:
· the time/date of the text
· the publisher, if applicable
· location of creation and publication and/or medium
· the circumstance(s) in which the text was produced (e.g. what was happening in the world and the locality of the creator as they created the text)
· the type and medium of the text (literal text, image, sound, physical, virtual)