The Rhetorical Situation

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The Rhetorical Situation
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The Real World Contextsfor Communication

• Authors have a purpose for writing.
• They have a subject, assigned or chosen.
• They use a medium (language, words, or images).
• They may have a specific, real audience they are
  writing for.
• They write within a specific context.

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World of the Text
Subject
Voice, Persona, Role, Presentation of Self
Audience- Target Implied, or Assumed
Medium Language Images
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Aristotles Terms
LOGOS (presentation of the subject)
ETHOS (of the speaker)
PATHOS (affecting the audience)
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Aristotles Appeals

• Ethical appeal good person speaking well
  authority of the speaker
• Logical appeal focus on the subject, logical
  argument
• Pathetic appeal move the audience through
  emotions

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Different Genres

• Emphasis on Author Writing for oneself in a
  diary or journal
• Emphasis on Subject Science, journalism
• Emphasis on Language Poetry
• Emphasis on Audience Advertisements, popular
  fiction or movies

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Author in the Text

• Voice
• Persona
• Presentation of Self
• Role
• Narrator (in fiction especially) who may be
  Reliable or Unreliable
• Narrative Point of Viewfirst person, omniscient,
  etc.

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Rhetorical Terms Tone

• Sense of distance between the author and the
  audience
• Sense of the attitude of the author toward the
  audience and the subject
• Terms Intimate, casual, formal, lofty, friendly,
  condescending, ironic, etc.

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Rhetorical Stance

• The authors positioning himself/herself in
  relationship to the other elements to achieve a
  specific purpose within a specific context.
• The author chooses language, organization, and
  other elements to suit a particular situation and
  audience.

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Audience in the Text

• Target Audience
• Intended Audience
• Assumed Audience
• Implied Audience
• Should be distinguished from the REAL Audience