Rhetorical situation — English definition
Defined in 2 courses:
- The combination of purpose, audience, and occasion that a text is responding to and must be read against. (English 11: American Voices, Identity & Public Memory)
- The whole context a text answers — its exigence, audience, purpose, and constraints — against which every choice must be read. (English 12: Complex Texts, Independent Inquiry & Public Voice)
Where it is taught
- Rhetoric in Founding & Historical Documents — Public Argument, Rhetoric & Competing Accounts, English 11: American Voices, Identity & Public Memory, Grade 11
- Advanced Rhetorical Analysis — Argument & Rhetoric, English 12: Complex Texts, Independent Inquiry & Public Voice, Grade 12
In use
Every one of these documents answers a rhetorical situation: a purpose, an audience, and an occasion pressing on the writer.
Rhetoric in Founding & Historical Documents
Start not with the devices but with the rhetorical situation, and in particular with its exigence — the pressing problem or gap that called the text into being in the first place.
Advanced Rhetorical Analysis
Questions using rhetorical situation
Problem 1
Explain what is meant by the 'rhetorical situation' of a document, using the Declaration of Independence as an example.
Answer and explanation
The rhetorical situation is the purpose, audience, and occasion a text responds to. The Declaration's purpose was to justify independence; its audiences were hesitant colonists, the British government, and world opinion; its occasion was the outbreak of revolution — and those factors explain its reasoned, case-building tone.