Week 8- Cheyenne Martinez

A) While reading Laura Bolin Carol’s essay, “Backpacks v. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis”, I learned a few things. I became educated on the meaning and purpose of the word, “exigence.” According to Google, exigence is an urgent need or demand. According to the text, “Exigence is the circumstance or condition that invites a response.” Exigence is one out of the three necessary parts that together, aid in understanding the context of a rhetorical moment. I just became aware of these three parts from Carol’s essay. Another part is the audience who are the receivers of the rhetorical message. They are meant to assist in solving the issue at hand. The last piece of comprehending rhetorical situations is constraints. Constraints are “beliefs, attitudes, documents, facts, traditions, images, interests, motives” which “limit the way the discourse is delivered or communicated.

B) I quoted, “Each day we meet different people, encounter unfamiliar situations, and see media that asks us to do, think, buy, and act in all sorts of ways.” I chose this part of the text because the words really resonated with me. It opened my eyes to something I haven’t actually thought about. Social media completely affects our daily lives. I was always aware of this, but not to the extent that it truly is. The media decides what’s cool and what’s not. It decides where we spend our money. It completely creates people’s personalities. It makes us not like certain things and feel the need to own specific brands. Why? Why do we let other factors, other people, decide how we live our lives? Just because.

C) “Backpacks v. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis” as a whole gave me a better understanding of what rhetorical analysis means, the process necessary to understand, and the purpose of rhetorical analysis. I mainly learned the parts of the process- exigence, audience, and constraints. I will keep these in mind while I edit my essay.