Rhetorical Situation Worksheet
Rhetorical Situation Worksheet

Rhetorical Situation Worksheet

Context & Exigence: What topic/conversation is this text responding to? What year is tThis he text published? What is the exigence–that is, what motivating occasion/issue/concern prompted the writing? The motivating occasion could be a current or historical event, a crisis, pending legislation, a recently published alternative view, or another ongoing problem.

The topic that this text is trying to respond to is the topic of whether or not people should be able to have the freedom to speak their own way throughout pieces of writing and is also a direct message to a man named Stanley Fish who believes otherwise. The motivation that came to produce this article was to shed light and speak out for the people so that they would be able to use their own voice and (English) within their writing. It is so often that nowadays people are forced to write in proper English. They are told that they shouldn’t be speaking a certain well and only should be speaking proper English.

Who is the author of this text? What are the author’s credentials and what is their investment in the issue?

The artist of this text is named Vershawn Ashanti Young who is someone of African American ethnic background who is trying to speak out so that people aren’t afraid and are able to speak how they want to speak.

What can you find out about the publication? What is the genre of the text (e.g., poem, personal essay, essay, news/academic article, blog, textbook chapter, etc.)? How do the conventions of that genre help determine the depth, complexity, and even appearance of the argument? What information about the publication or source (magazine, newspaper, advocacy Web site) helps explain the writer’s perspective or the structure and style of the argument?

The genre of the text is an academic article. The conventions of this genre help determine the depth. complexity. and even the appearance of the argument because it can show us the readers what the intended audience this piece of writing is for. This article was published at IOWA Journal of cultural studies.

Who is the author’s intended audience? What can you infer about the audience (think about beliefs and political association but also age, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, profession, education, geographic location, religion, etc.)? Look for clues from the text (especially the original publication) to support your inference.

The intended audience for this piece of writing is minority groups, academics, Stanley Fish, Professors, People who read I.J.S. Well, when it comes to what I can infer about the audience I can infer that the race and ethnicity are belonging to anyone who can be labeled as being a minority. The reason to why I say this is because I feel like a lot of people can relate to this issue that when they are writing “academically,” they are often steered away from who they really are.

What is the author trying to accomplish? To persuade, entertain, inform, educate, call to action, shock? How do you know?

The author is trying to persuade/educate people the importance of using personal voice within a text/speech. It is also a direct response to Stanley Fish who thinks that students should forget writing in their own patters and varieties of language.

What do you believe is the main claim/idea/argument that the author is trying to communicate? What stance does s/he take?

The main argument that the author is trying to make within this article is that it is important that students are able to speak using their own personal voice. That they should be able to feel comfortable with who they are.

How is the argument supported? Types of support include reasons and logical explanations as well as evidence. Types of evidence include anecdotes, examples, hypothetical situations, (expert) testimony, quotes, citing sources, statistics, charts/graphs, research the author or another source conducts, scientific or other facts, general knowledge, historical references, metaphors/analogies, etc.

The argument is supported through research made by the author and mainly through personal experience and personal thoughts/motivations.

What aspects of this text stand out for you as a rhetorical reader? In other words, what do you observe about what the author strategically does (consciously or not) in hopes of appealing to their audience? List here as many observations as you can make about what the text does.

This author tries to use the strategy of persuasion and arguing about something that people can relate to in order to appeal to his audience.

What do you want to remember about this text?

The thing that I would want to remember about this text is that you should feel comfortable speaking in your own voice.

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