Rhetorical Situation
As we said in the introduction to this unit, Rhetoric has traditionally been defined as the art of effective speaking—or by extension, the art of effective writing. But what makes writing effective? We tend to think of writing as something that expresses our ideas, but it must also do more. It must take account of the reader or listener, of the topic it addresses, and even perhaps the context in which it will be read.
We call these different factors the rhetorical situation. In this lesson you will learn about the different elements that make up the rhetorical situation, you will consider different models of how these elements are related, and will learn about different kinds of appeals that may be used to address a particular situation. Let's begin by looking at a famous historical example. |