The Rhetorical Situation
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| audience/ˈɔːdɪəns/ | The people a text is written for. |
| exigence/ˈeksɪdʒəns/ | The closure; the purpose is to keep public confidence; the audience is residents who are already inconvenienced; the context is a town in the middle of a disruption. |
| context/ˈkɒntekst/ | The surrounding circumstances, information or language that help determine meaning and interpretation. |
| purpose/ˈpɜːpəs/ | The aim or intended result of an action or communication. |
Every text was written by someone, for someone, because of something
- A text is not information floating free — it was produced under conditions.
- Those conditions explain the choices the writer made.
- Naming them is the first move in every question this course asks.
An argument with no audience is a speech to an empty chair. The chair remains unconvinced.
Exigence: why now?
- The exigence 促因 is what inspires, stimulates, provokes or prompts a writer to create a text.
- It answers "why did this get written now?"
- Exigence is not the topic — it is the trigger.
Exigence prompts the writer; context 语境 surrounds everything- and every question about "choices" is answered from here
The exigence of a text is...
Difficulty 1/5 · 100 coins + a small bonus on first completion today
Exigence is the trigger; purpose is the aim. They are separate components.
Purpose, audience, context
- The purpose 目的 is what the writer hopes to accomplish — and there may be more than one.
- The audience 受众 has shared as well as individual beliefs, values, needs and backgrounds.
- The context is the time, place and occasion in which the text was created.
Which component of the rhetorical situation?
Sort each detail by the component it names.
A text can have more than one purpose.
Difficulty 1/5 · 100 coins + a small bonus on first completion today
The CED states this explicitly — writers may pursue several aims at once.
The time, place and occasion in which a text is created is its ____.
Difficulty 1/5 · 100 coins + a small bonus on first completion today
Context surrounds the whole situation; it is not the same as the exigence.
Exigence and purpose are different components and questions often ask for only one. Exigence is what prompted the text; purpose is what the writer wants to achieve. Using one word for both loses the distinction the rubric rewards.
Select all the components of the rhetorical situation the CED names.
Difficulty 2/5 · 140 coins + a small bonus on first completion today
Word count is not a component; the six are exigence, purpose, audience, writer, context and message.
Writer and message
- The writer brings their own position, knowledge and stake in the subject.
- The message is what the text actually says and does.
- Together with exigence, purpose, audience and context, these make the six components.
Match each component to the question it answers.
Difficulty 2/5 · 140 coins + a small bonus on first completion today
Three different questions, three different components — questions ask for one at a time.
The sentence this course wants
- A weak answer names a device: "the writer uses a rhetorical question".
- A scoring answer names the situation: this writer, prompted by this exigence, made this choice to move this audience toward this purpose.
- The device is only evidence; the situation is the argument.
A mayor publishes a letter the week after a bridge closes. The exigence is the closure; the purpose is to keep public confidence; the audience is residents who are already inconvenienced; the context is a town in the middle of a disruption. Every sentence in the letter follows from those four.
The rhetorical situation is the exigence, purpose, audience, writer, context and message together. Exigence is the trigger, purpose is the aim, and every rhetorical choice a writer makes is explained by these six.
Write from a cancelled bus
- The school cancels the late bus. A student writes to the head teacher to ask for the route back.
- Name the exigence.
A student writes to the head teacher asking for the late bus to be restored after the school cancels it. What is the exigence in this rhetorical situation?
Exigence is the trigger, not the aim.
What is the exigence?
Difficulty 1/5 · 100 coins + a small bonus on first completion today
The cancellation is what made the letter necessary.