The Rhetorical Situation

The rhetorical situation refers to all of the things in a setting, place, or time that you need to consider
when writing or communicating with others. When writing, people analyze their rhetorical situation in
order to know what to say, how to say it, and when to say it.
A piece of writing is shaped and influenced by its surrounding circumstances and contexts. The
rhetorical situation can be described in five parts: purpose, audience, topic, voice, and occasion. 

The occasion (context): The occasion or context refers to the event or situation or setting that causes you to
write. The occasion will influence how a text is written.
e.g.) A blog, journal, academic essay, birthday card, thank you note etc.
Topic: The topic is the content of your writing. You may be assigned a topic or you might choose a topic of
your own. Nevertheless, when choosing a topic, it shouldn’t be too broad or too narrow. If a topic is too broad,
you’ll write too much and go off topic. If it is too narrow, you will have little to write about.
e.g.) Topic = writing
[ too broad] writing → college writing → writing a college essay→ How to write a college essay → [ good] How
to write a persuasive college essay → How to write a persuasive college essay about politics → How to write a
persuasive college essay about the American party system in politics. [ too narrow]
Purpose: The purpose is your reason for writing. Are you writing to inform, evaluate, analyze, or persuade?
Each of these purposes carries specific conventions and dictates how the writing will be formed. The purpose
can be divided into two parts: general and specific.
General: to inform, to persuade, to explain, to entertain, to illustrate etc.
Specific: general purpose + topic + audience = specific purpose.
e.g.) To inform a friend about a holiday to Turkey last week.
To explain the pros and cons of satellite TV to parents.
Audience: The audience are the people who will be reading your writing. Before you write, you should think
about who are you writing this text for. You should also think about other details such as age, gender, level of
education, socio-economic class, interests and attitudes.
e.g.) For a children’s book you might want to write in simple basic language.
For an article for teenagers, you might need to write in informal language about topics like music, fashion and
sports.
By thinking about the audience, you will determine the language and topics you will be writing about in order to
get the audience to read it.
Voice: The voice in writing is the tone or style of language you are going to use for your writing. When you
have decided on the occasion, purpose, topic and audience, you will determine the voice for your writing.
e.g) In an informal email, you would use a friendly tone/ voice.
In a formal email, you need to sound serious or professional.
In a satirical article, you might want to use a funny or sarcastic tone.
To help with the voice, think about the level of formality. The level of formality can range from very informal, to
semi-formal to very formal

Note: When reading you can analyze the rhetorical situation to understand the text better.