The Rhetorical Situation

1. The Rhetorical Situation

2. What is Rhetoric? • Rhetoric is what we have instead of omniscience—Ann Berthoff • Rhetoric is “an ability, in each particular case, to see/to find the available means of persuasion” — Aristotle • Rhetoric is the set of methods people use to identify with each other—to encourage each other to understand things from one another’s perspectives — Burke • Rhetoric is any communication used to modify the perspectives of others and an awareness of the language choices we make.

3. Welcome to the Parlor Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress.

4. What is a Rhetorical Situation? • any set of circumstances that involves at least one person using some sort of communication to modify the perspective of at least one other person • Including: • Writing • Oral Communication • Bodies: Physical Gestures • Audio/Video • Digital Social Media

5. The Rhetorical Situation Subject [The topic the writer shapes into the text] Purpose Purpose TheText [What you have to say about the Subject] Writer/Speaker [The Composer of the text] Reader/Audience [Those who construct the text] TheContext [the ongoing conversation about the subject & the reason for writing] TheCulture

6. The Writer’s Purpose • There will be many reasons for which you write; among those are personal, academic, or aesthetic reasons **(CI) Pg. 178

7. Writer: Factors which can affect your writing include: • Your age • Your experiences • Your gender • Your location • Your political beliefs • Your parents and peers • Your education

8. Finding a Topic & Brainstorming • Topics may be broadened or narrowed depending on the length of your writing and your interest • (ex. How to analyze Literature Vs. How to analyze 18th C. British Lit) • Topics should be appropriate to the rhetorical situation you are in • the Topics (topos, “place”): the place where one went/goes to find ideas • Definition – What is it? • Comparison – What is it like or unlike? • Relationship – What caused it, and what will it cause? • Testimony – What is said about it, for instance, by experts?

9. Finding a Topic Cont. Invention • Invention (invenire, “to find/come upon”): the process of attempting to find ideas or to bring ideas to mind. Typically something like jotting down ideas on paper or thinking through the topics is considered engagement with invention. • Freewriting, diagrams, clustering, lists, etc., are all excellent ways to think through a particular topic you may want to explore and write about **(CI) Pg. 4

10. Finding a Topic Cont. Dissoi Logoi • DissoiLogoi (“different words”) is a process by which you attempt to look at, and argue, a topic from both sides. • It is intended to help an individual gain a deeper understanding of an issue by forcing him or her to consider it from the angle of his opponent, which may serve either to strengthen his or her argument or to help the debaters reach compromise • If one side is stronger than the other, than you will attempt to make the weaker the stronger

11. Dissoi Logoi:Choose one of the following topics and work out all the arguments on each side of the issue • Group 1: • Free Market Capitalism/ Working Wives/ Welfare • Group 2: • Guantanamo Bay/ School Vouchers/ Organic food • Group 3: • Affirmative Action/ General Education Courses/ Public Surveillance Cameras • Group 4: • Genetic Engineering/ Bilingual Education/ Public Higher Education • Group 5: • Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants/ Universal Healthcare/ Warrantless Wiretapping

12. Audience: To Whom are you Writing? • Many of the same factors which affect the writer also affect the audience • Age • Social class • Education • Past experience • Culture/subculture • Expectations

13. Context & Kairos • Kairos is an ancient Greek word meaning the right or opportune moment (the supreme moment) • The “situation” which generates the need for composing is affected by: • Time period or timing • Location • Current events • Cultural significance

14. Genre/Discourse • Category or type of writing in Communities that use language in a particular way • Genres hinge upon purpose and the needs, or expectationsof the projected audience. • Ex:fiction, autobiographical story, news article, review, letter to the editor/editorial, rhetorical analysis, criticism, persuasive essay

15. Rhetorical Situation • Writer/Speaker • Reader/Audience • Subject • Context &Culture • Purpose

16. What this means… • You need to be aware that a rhetorical situation exists every time you write or use symbols systems—language —to communicate. • You need to adapt your writing depending on your purpose and your audience.