College Composition / Unit 1 CMP 0002 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Rhetorical Situation
The idea
Every act of communication happens in a rhetorical situation: the people involved and the conditions under which they communicate.
In practice
Learn the parts in order. First, the agents: the writer or speaker who starts the communication, and the audience who receives it, real or anticipated. Second, the purpose, the reason for communicating, such as to inform or to persuade. Third, the genre, the form the message takes, such as a text message or a class presentation. Fourth, the stance, the writer's position or attitude. Fifth, the context, the time and place that shape what can be said. Sixth, the culture that writer and audience bring with them.
Where people slip
The same message can work in one situation and fail in another. Describing a trip to your friends and describing it to your grandparents are different situations, so the details and the language change, even though the trip did not.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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