Rhetorical Situations

From NORTON FIELD GUIDE TO WRITING, 3rd edition.

1. Rhetorical Situations

2. 1. Purpose To explore thoughts and emotions To express ourselves To entertain To record words and events To communicate with others To try to persuade others

3. Identify Your Purpose What the primary purpose of the writing task is To entertain To persuade To Inform To demonstrate your knowledge or writing ability What are your own goals What are your audience’s expectations Do they affect the way you define your purpose

4. Thinking About Purpose What do you want your audience to think? Feel? What does this writing task call you to do? What are the best ways to achieve your purpose?

5. 2. Audience Affects your audience in various ways What you write, how much you write, how you phrase it, choice of genre Audience will interpret your writing according to expectations and experiences Remember: You may make assumptions in your writing, but you need to supply evidence and back-up

6. Identify Your Audience Known People who you are familiar with as well as people you don’t know Unknown Most difficult because you can’t be sure what they know and what they don’t know or how they will react Multiple Most common

7. Thinking About Audience Whom do you want to reach? What is your audience’s background – their education and life experiences What are their interests? Is there any demographic information that you should keep in mind? What potential circumstances may affect their reading? What does your audience already know – or believe – about your topic? What is your relationship with your audience? What does your audience need and expect from you? What kind of response do you want? How can you best appeal to your audience?

8. 3. Genre Kinds of writing Each as a particular convention for presenting information Identify: Does your situation call for a particular genre?

9. Thinking about Genre What is your genre, and how does it affect what content you can or should include? Does your genre call for specific strategies? Does your genre require a certain organization Does your genre affect your tone? Does the genre require formal/informal language?

10. 4. Stance Attitude towards your topic Identify Your Stance What is your attitude? Objective? Critical? Curious? Opinionated? Affected by your purpose Tone is created through the words you use and the way you approach your subject and audience

11. Thinking About Stance What is your stance and how can you best present it to achieve your purpose What tone will best convey your stance How is your stance likely to be received by your audience Should you openly reveal your stance

12. Writing in Academic Contexts Add your voice to a larger conversation.

13. Key Features Evidence that you’ve already considered the subject. A clear, appropriately qualified thesis. A response to what others have said. Good reasons supported by evidence. Acknowledgement of multiple sources. Carefully documented sources. A confident, authoritative stance. Indication why your topic matters. Careful attention to correctness.

14. Academic Rhetorical Situations What genre does the assignment require? What do you see as your instructor’s purpose for this assignment? What is your purpose – apart from fulfilling your instructor’s expectations? Who is your audience? How can you convey a confident, authoritative voice?