Understanding Rhetorical Situation: Context in Effective Communication

[Music] rhetoric is the art of effective speaking or writing truly artful

rhetoric will be carefully calibrated to the situation in which the speaker and the audience interact with each other so

as you start analyzing a text you can start with the rhetorical situation sometimes you will see it called

rhetorical occasion or context but for our purposes they're basically the same thing we just call it rhetorical

situation when we talk about rhetorical situation we are asking ourselves where does this exchange between author and

audience take place when does it take place is it in private or is it out in public is this situation pleasant and

open or hostile and closed in what ways is the author adjusting her message to this situation only by considering a

text in context can we really understand how the speaker and the audience are interacting with each other let's

imagine a specific rhetorical occasion the Queen of England is writing a letter to her cousin here the Queen's intended

audience is only one person a trusted relative the Queen writes her cousin by saying that she hopes she's well she

misses her and she hopes that they can get together one day soon the rhetorical occasion here is a private letter

between two relatives and for the most part it's pretty unremarkable keep in mind that the Queen is well she's still

a queen so she probably isn't going to sign off with Yolo she is aware that this letter could still end up in a

museum in a hundred years even so this rhetorical occasion has much lower stakes than her speeches to Parliament

or any other public speech that she may give let's keep the same characters the Queen and her cousin but we can change

the rhetorical situation the occasion is now the 75th birthday of the Queen's cousin the Queen is hosting her at

Buckingham Palace the Queen delivers a toast to her cousin on her birthday this is a very different occasion from the

private letter instead of an audience of one it's an audience of dozens or hundreds of people instead of a private

written letter this situation is a public spoken speech there's a certain expectation about how a toast should be

it should be brief and personal and positive it can be funny or playful but there are limits to what a queen can say

literally everything a queen says and does is filtered through that situation this is an occasion of a public toast on

her cousin's birthday on the AP exam you need to do more than just describe a rhetorical situation you need to explain

how the situation influences the author's rhetorical choices as you plan your essay focusing on the rhetorical

occasion will help you best deliver the information that you want to convey and that is how you score points with the

essay graders you