Thinking about rules of writing from our 9/1 lesson plan and the ones you wrote on the Google Doc is a way for us to consider how writing gets done. What rules are there? What do we need to know before we write?
That is one way to think about writing, but I don’t think it is as helpful to worry about primarily. Rather than adhering finely to a set list of rules, I want you to think about considering the full rhetorical situation. That is: what is your purpose? Who is your audience? What constraints do you face to do this writing? (e.g., deadline, the genre of writing that is expected, amount of space you have to write, logistics for circulation).
For your first draft of your Literacy Narrative, the rhetorical situation would include information like the following:
- purpose is to explore your history as a language user, reader, and writer in ways how it shaped your identity and your feelings about language and literacy
- audience is me and your classmates; possibly others if you imagine writing this for other readers, too.
- Constraints include following our rubric for what I expect to see (e.g., word count, making sure you write about literacy as well as speaking, using examples), deadline of 9/15, working in Microsoft Word and what you can and can’t do there, and other circumstances in your life.
Once you have a sense of the rhetorical situation, it is time to figure out the full context of how you’ll do your writing:
- the process we use for going from ideas to words on page (and back again to ideas and back to words and so on).
- the practice you will develop to get you into a space to do some writing, reading, revising, etc. (e.g., the time you will write, the place you will write, the sounds you want to hear, the ways you’ll nourish your body)
On the next page of this module, we will explore the writing process in more detail.
However, before we do, comment below on a previous rhetorical situation you might have been in or are in now. Be sure to list your purpose, the audience, and any constraints you were under when you wrote or spoke in this rhetorical situation as well as a brief reflection on how your speech or writing went once you did it.
You can do:
- a time where you had to write a text/message or prepare to speak to a boyfriend/girlfriend/significant other, a family member, a friend about something important.
- a time where you had to navigate a difficult situation at your job or a place you volunteer at.
- a memorable school assignment
- an essay/article/post you wrote online somewhere (e.g., a newsletter article, a school newspaper, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, TikTok)
Once you have commented below on your rhetorical situation, click the button below to continue.
One rhetorical situation I have been in was when I was developing an argument with my group members in AP Seminar.
We were trying to argue that organs should not be for sale.
Our language was more or less colloquial, although we sometimes used pertinent medical vocabulary, in order to allow my classmates to understand the situation with ease.
The main constraint for my group was that we were obviously not medical professionals, so we had to conduct plenty of research.
Overall, I think my my group was able to execute an argument without too much jargon, and conveyed our proposal backed by credible evidence and logic. For example, we cited the detriments of an organ market, which includes inequality of distribution, health consequences, and the impracticality of such markets in developing countries.
One previous rethorical situation of mine, is when I had to write what was intended to be as the first draft of a college admission’s essay for my English class in 10th grade.
The purpose was to write a complete essay explaining my career choice and the reasons behind my decision – I know now a college essay doesn’t necessarily include that type of theme and information.
The audience was my teacher, my classmates and since she decided to post it in the bulletin board, anyone in the school who wanted to read it.
Constraints; the deadlines were flexible being about 5 days for each draft (2 drafts total), my biggest issue was having to think about my career choice for the essay as I had no idea of what I wanted.
A personal rhetorical situation that I have that is memorable to me would be the time I was taking my course to become a certified lifeguard for a summer job. Before the course began, I was worried that I was not ready for the tests and I know the purpose of the course was to prove I was ready to potentially save a life. I also had to do my best in the audience of other teenagers trying to do the same thing, as this was my first real job, I wanted to pass the test on my first attempt. One of the hardest parts, was the instructor that we were assigned, as the instructor was strict and unforgiving to any mistakes as he had sent two other participants home after they could not finish one of the parts of the test. Overall, the whole experience was able to teach me that life is going to be full of hard work, and that it is much better to be prepared than to go into something completely blind because usually it will not turn out for the best.
My rhetorical situation would be when I had to let my superviour at work know that the admin department was not thoroughly communicating with my department. The purpose was to be vocal about the root cause of the problems arising between workers: communication. If communication was strong then teamwork would be done efficiently and effectively. The audience was my supervisor. The biggest constraint was to not get fired. But, also to focus on my tone and make sure the message was clear and professional. Once I emailed my supervisor, I ended up getting moved to another project. Which made my life easier, but taught me that people hate being called out on things. Specifically, when they hold more power. I also learned that lacking power will never keep me quiet. At least I didn’t lose my job!
My rhetorical situation is that of a memorable school assignment. I was tasked with creating a video for my English class last year where I would read a (fake) graduation speech that I prepared since school was cancelled due to the global pandemic. The purpose of this assignment was to bring some normalcy to the crazy world that we were (and still are) living in by allowing my class (the seniors) to “graduate properly” for lack of a better term. The audience was my English teacher who graded each students’ speech. I dealt with a time constraint as the teacher stated that our speeches be no longer than a few minutes, but I managed. I was under a bit of stress when writing, as I was trying to keep the speech short, but sweet… and I think I did a good job. I thanked my parents, certain teachers, and now ex-girlfriend, spoke about my future plans, and relived some of my early high school memories all in under 3 minutes. I completed the task successfully and received a 100/100 for my final high school grade.
I experienced an unconventional rhetorical situation many years ago. I used to play console games with players from the UK: British, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish players. I got to know a lot of the language differences beyond the common slang used and also some more specific regional differences within the UK and I got a chance to explain certain differences with US accents. There was no larger purpose but I thought it was an interesting cultural exchange that didn’t happen face to face. Perhaps it’s not unusual now but definitely was at the time. That experience made me a lot more conscious about word origins and pronunciation.
An example of a rhetorical situation that I have experienced is when I had to write an argumentative essay on a topic that has been very controversial. The assignment required that I argue against gun control even though I have always advocated for local, state, and federal regulation of gun ownership. I was supposed to convince my teacher that the disadvantages of gun control outweighed the advantages. The main constraint I faced is that I had to lay aside my beliefs and opinions and embrace a different ideology regarding gun ownership. I reminded myself that I needed to employ critical thinking and to maintain an open mind even when responding to an ethical dilemma. This approach helped me to create a paper that was well-received by my instructor.
One rhetorical situation I went through was during writing class in senior year of high school. I presented to my class and teacher, about the rise of anti-semitism in New York. The prompt for this assignment was to gather research from online and conduct surveys about your topic and present your findings. One constraint I felt was keeping the attention of my classmates while bringing their focus onto the problems I was presenting. Looking back I could have used more diagrams and pictures to interact with my class, while also speaking about the most important and dramatic parts of my topic.
A rhetorical situation I was in was speaking to my birth father for the first time after I turned 18. The purpose was to find out what type of person he was, find out about any family I had, and try to create some sort of relationship. My audience was just him and I. My constraints were my mom and adoptive father because I wanted to be careful to respect their feelings about him and by forming a close relationship with him it may make them uncomfortable.
A rhetorical situation I remember is a video one of my classmates and I had to do for my Literature and Film class last year. We had just finished reading and watching “The Godfather.” The purpose was to advertise an object in the book that was seen as foreshadowing. We chose to advertise oranges. In the book, anytime there were oranges involved or around, death was upon one of the characters. In our video, I had to pretend to get shot and fall on the ground. It was so memorable because when I fell to the ground, I banged my head on a rock that I did not see at all. The constraints of the assignment were the deadline, different settings needed to be used, and it had to be at least two minutes long. The video came out great and we even added bloopers where you can see the take where I banged my head. Good times.
One of the most memorable rhetorical situations for me had to have been the AP English exam short answer essays. The purpose of these essays was to take a stance on an issue that had just been presented to you and to argue why you believed the way you did. The audience for this situation would be a single AP test grader, who would look to see if I have writen an essay that had a good thesis, and had strong evidence to support my claims. The biggest constraint was that I only had 45 minutes to read an article and respond to it. The time limit was what made this so difficult because of the stress that was added. I found that I performed somewhat poorly on these essays because I didn’t have enough time to let my thoughts and ideas just sit in my mind. I didn’t get much of an opportunity to think aabout my writing because I had to do it so quickly.
One example of a rhetorical situation I’ve been in was in would be when I was preparing for a debate in 11th grade with my school’s debate team. I had just joined and the debate was in two days, so I didn’t have much time to prepare. The argument was basically talking about whether or not big pharma is corrupt, and of course in a debate, you don’t know which side you’ll be arguing until you get there. So I spent those two days doing as much research as I could and taking down as many notes, trying to form a cohesive argument. I stayed up until 5AM the day of the debate doing my work, and I actually overslept and had to race to the site by myself to make it in time before my team went up. Granted, we didn’t win against the other team, but I think that was one of the few times where i was able to think critically about my work and review it properly,