The Rhetorical Situation

The rhetorical situation consists of a rhetor, an occasion, and an audience.  A rhetorical situation can take place in the form of writing or speaking.  There are three components that make up the rhetorical situation: purpose, audience, and occasion.

 

Locating the Rhetorical Situation

Knowing how to locate the rhetor, purpose, audience, and occasion will help you become an effective writer and orator.  In order to guide your writing process, ask yourself the following questions:

Purpose

“What are you trying to accomplish?  “What point do you want to make?”  “What reaction do you want readers to have?” (Raign 7).

Audience

“Who are your readers?” (Raign 4).  “What specialized knowledge do your readers have?” (Raign 5).

Occasion

Different occasions call for different “[types] of [responses]” (Raign 19).  Examples of occasions that require a response include academic writing, professional writing, and personal writing (Raign 17). Knowing the occasion for writing allows you to tailor your response to a given audience.

 

Example
In George Orwell’s Animal Farm Squealer is usually the rhetor.  “Bravery is not enough, said Squealer.  Loyalty and obedience are more important. And as to the Battle of the Cowshed, I believe the time will come when we shall find that Snowball’s part in it was much exaggerated.  Discipline, comrades, iron discipline!  That is the watchword for today.  One false step, and our enemies would be upon us.  Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones back?”(Orwell 60).

The passage outlines Squealer’s attempt to oust Snowball and bring Napoleon into absolute power.  Squealer is the rhetor, the audience consists of all the farm animals, and the purpose in the passage is Napoleon’s will to power.  The occasion in this scenario is dissuasion of the loyalty the farm animals have toward Snowball.

 

Example
In politics, the rhetorical situation is crucial.  Politicians use it to make their aim clear to their constituency.  Political writers use the rhetorical situation to defend a politician’s view or to refute it.  Political writers use the rhetorical situation to rally support, to locate a solution to a problem and persuade or dissuade the constituency.  Thus, they use the rhetorical situation to make their claim.  “The president’s vision of a nuclear free world…is the correct stance….His critics are dead wrong” (Zogby 1).  On the implementation of Obama’s START (Strategic Arms Arms Reduction Treaty) program and Israel’s reticence to it, Zogby writes “peace and security will only come through a negotiated just settlement with the Palestinians, the Syrians and the Lebanese” (Zogby 1).

The author, James Zogby, is the rhetor of this article.  His audience consists of those who are unsure of Israel’s safety regarding arms reduction.  In general, he refutes those who still support the policy of “mutually assured destruction”(Zogby 1).  The occasion is to rally support for and put pressure on other countries to sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, in which “both the U.S. and Russia will each dramatically reduce their nuclear weapons arsenal to 1,550, whereas, twenty years ago the U.S. and Russia combined had “over 70,000 such weapons”(Zogby 1).  The purpose of the article is to criticize the methods of “mutually assured destruction” and to make peaceful negotiations a priority instead.  The occasion is to garner worldwide support the START initiative that Obama will introduce at the next Nuclear Summit meeting.

Zogby argues that Obama’s proposed reduction in nuclear arms is the only way to ensure a peaceful future, especially in the Middle East. He writes, “The way forward is to drop the shield of secrecy that surrounds Israel’s program, insist that Israel join the world community and sign the NPT, and negotiate comprehensive peace with its neighbors” (Zogby 1).  The rhetorical situation is used in this article because he gives a detailed and logical account of why the reader should side with him.

 

Note Remember to stick to your claim and support it as thoroughly as possible!

 

 

Works Cited

Orwell, George. Animal Farm. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1946. Print.

Raign, Kathryn R. The Decisive Writer. Mason, OH: Thompson, 2008.

Zogby, James. Huffington Post. Nuclear Nonsense. Web. April 10, 2010.

 

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