Harrison West

Debra Jizi
UWRT 1102
February 10 2016
The Rhetorical Situation

The first thing I learned about rhetoric is that we are surrounded

by it everyday without us realizing. It takes the form of movies,
advertisements, books, even body language. To me the rhetoric
situation is to understand the elements that make a piece of writing
appealing to a certain group of people. The second advertisement is
using an Internet meme (grumpy cat) to market its brand to Internet
consumers and pet owners. They choose to use the same font as in the
meme; they use animals because everyone on the Internet is for some
reason animal crazy. Together all these elements brings an enjoyable
and funny experience for someone that fits these elements. In
advertisements its easy to identify the rhetoric easier because we are
already understand that the purpose it to appeal to a certain market.
It may not be easy to see in something like the news. The news most
people thing report the facts. But in reality every news agency has its
own viewing demographic that the show or paper is made to appeal to.
Knowing this you can weed out the truth from lip service. I think its
important for students to understand the rhetorical situation because it
allows for their work or writing to be tailored to a specific assignment.
There are many little ways this can help your writing and overall
schoolwork. Every professor is different and throughout the class its
inevitable that some of their personal persona will leak into the course.
Take their morals and values and use them in your work to make your
style more appealing to your audience, i.e. your professor. Likewise its
important not to write thing with yourself being the only intended
audience member. Things that may be funny to you may not be funny
at all to others. Also when someone reads something and they agree
with tone of which its being said, they are more likely to find the piece
agreeable and respect the effort of the author.