Transcript of Unit 1: The Rhetorical Situation

Hello, students and growing writers! This is Sara Wink, one of the many teachers of Composition here at Purdue Global. I wanted to stop by with a Seminar Snippet for Unit 1. This snippet has to do with the rhetorical situation, something that we really do need to consider whether we are critiquing a communication or creating a communication. Now, what on earth is involved with the performance situation? Well, the rhetorical situation pertains to the different elements involved with this moment of communication.

For example, the audience—you know, the folks that are hearing what you say or reading what you're saying, the ones receiving the info. We’ve got to think about the audience in order to make sure that how we share our words is going to connect with them. Just think about folks who speak to children a certain way are probably going to adults a different way. The way we ask a two-year-old to use the bathroom is probably not the same way we would ask—well, I don't know if we have to ask adults this, but the audience is going to affect the words we use, the tone we use.

Let's just say you are the writer here. You're the speaker or the one getting that information out there, the one sharing your words. How are you doing this?

This is where text comes into place. Text isn't just a thing you send on your phone, nor is it the thing you always type up. Text is whichever way we are sharing our words. Yes, it can happen in a text message on the phone. Yes, texts can be emails, or books, or articles. Text also be speech; after all, that's how we're sharing our words if we're sharing our words by talking to someone. The text is the phone conversation. That's the way we're getting the words across. Maybe the text is a movie, or a video, or a TV show. That's how the information is coming out. It's through that media presentation, or a song, or a speech. Those are all texts. Those are all different ways we share the words.

Now purpose is another very important part of the rhetorical situation. Why are the words being shared? There has to be a purpose, there has to be a reason. Whether we are trying to persuade folks to agree with what we think about something, maybe we're trying to persuade a kid finally take a bite of broccoli (still failing on that one). Maybe we are trying to educate so they better understand what it's like to see things from our experience. Maybe we are trying to entertain someone with our words. Maybe our goal is to make them laugh, to lift them up, to encourage, to support. Bu not matter what that goal is, there is a goal, so in our rhetorical situation we must be mindful of the purpose of the why we are sharing what we’re sharing. If we have no sense of purpose, then our words have no sense of worth or urgency. Why should our audience listen if there is no purpose?

Now context and setting—I want to bring up setting first, and then we can talk about context.
Setting can be taken in a couple ways here. So setting, we could be thinking about where are we actually sharing our words because it's one thing if we’re sitting on a park bench with a friend (and hopefully it's not -10 degrees outside while you’re doing that) and you two are chatting and you're sharing your ideas a reform you’d like to see at your local school. That kind of setting makes the communication pretty informal—it’s just you and a friend talking. It’s not like you feel pressured to be choosy with your words or tone. Now let’s change the setting up. You’re sharing your idea for reform at your local school, but you’re sharing it in front of the school board, in front of other families on a stage behind a podium. That kind of setting may very well change the way you hold yourself, the words you choose, and the tone you take. That setting can influence how you communicate.

Now in our class here with CM220, setting also applies to your community—where you are fighting for a solution to a problem. Because every community is unique, every setting of a problem is unique. There are problems that are seen everywhere, such as homelessness—that’s a struggle that man face in many communities. However, one solution that works for one community may not work in another because every community is different. Every community is a different size, has different resources, different kinds of people who live there who may be more willing to help versus less willing to help. So we have to take this into account while we are studying our communities this term in the weeks ahead to understand what makes this problem a problem where we are, and can we solve it where we are. Setting matters, and over all of this will come the context.

Now context can be tricky to work out because context has to do with the big picture. We are so often used to dealing with what's right outside our door, it can be easy to lose track of what’s happening everywhere. Or, on the flipside, if you're catching the news, you're seeing what’s happened everywhere else except outside your door.
Just think of how many struggles in this country have been put under a very harsh spotlight because of the pandemic—problems that were there before the pandemic, but because of the new context of the pandemic, these problems cannot be ignored anymore. Just to play on one example, there was a news article in the summer of 2020 (I'll probably bring this up in our seminar as well) about the spike of pollution in the oceans. People were upset, which is understandable. We’re trying to clean that area up, for goodness’ sake! Well this pollution happened to be hospital waste, primarily masks and gloves. Now, without context, we’d be wondering what hospital had the nerve to be dumping such things in the ocean. However, when we remember this article was published in the summer of 2020, the beginning of the American pandemic and lockdown, when surgical masks and gloves were being used by any establishment—educational, business, and medical establishment—suddenly we have a bigger picture understanding of why the pollution surged like it did. So context helps us better see what could be considered root causes of a problem. It can also help you understand why the problem is what it is, or maybe why it's been left untouched until now. Context is something you don't want to ignore in this rhetorical situation.

These are things that we should be thinking about not just when we critique arguments in Unit 2, but in the weeks to come when we are developing arguments fighting for positive change in our communities. We really do need to think about these rhetorical situations so we better understand how we as writers can best use our texts, our words, to connect with the audience, and help them feel the passion for our purpose in our unique settings despite off or because of that big picture context.
So that was my seminar snippet for the rhetorical situation. If you have any questions, my e-mail is in the course. Cheers!

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