In a broad spectrum, a rhetorical situation refers to the context or setting in which a communicator either a writer or a speaker creates a rhetorical discourse. The fundamental elements of a rhetorical situation include; purpose, audience, genre, stance, and the media or design as discussed below.
An in-depth analysis of ‘the purpose’ as the first element of a rhetorical situation confirms that it relates to the reason as to why a writer or a speaker seeks to create a particular rhetoric. The reasons may be guided by the endeavor to inform, educate, warn, persuade and or entertain the audience into acting or behaving in a particular manner. By understanding this element of a rhetorical situation, speakers and authors subject their communication towards a precise angle so as to pass the intended message ( Abbott, 2018 ). A perfect example is when a motivational speaker creates a speech that is entertaining, informative and educative when handling a group of students in a bid to attract their attention but in the end motivate them.
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The audience is the next element of a rhetorical situation. It refers to the person or the group that a speaker or an author targets in their work. The audience can be specific or general depending on the type of message the sender intends to communicate. For instance, in a grade 2 math book, the audience is anybody who is a grade 2 learner. In a motivational speech intended for couples in a particular region, the audience is all the couples attending that function in that particular region ( Fletcher & Jago , 2015).
Genre is the other element of a rhetorical situation which refers to the type of writing or words the communicator intends to use. Genre rhymes with the type of language, words and writing that is used in communication and whether it is simplistic or complicated ( Kjeldsen et al., 2019 ). In a professional set up, the communicator can use complicated language while in a general context, a simplistic approach is used.
Stance is the next element of a rhetorical situation which refers to the tone or attitude of the sender and the message that is being communicated to the audience. It entails the choice of words and the general view a writer or a speaker has about the subject of communication ( Fields, & Matsuda, 2018 ). The attitude can be formal, informal, ironical, satirical or supportive.
The last element of a rhetorical situation is the media or the design the communicator uses to reach the target audience. In the contemporary world, the media can take the form of physical texts such as text books, electronic text, short messaging service, verbal speech and phone calls among other media platforms.
References
Abbott, M. (2018). Teaching Arguments: Rhetorical Comprehension, Critique, and Response. English Journal , 107 (4), 74-75.
Fields, G., & Matsuda, P. K. (2018). Advanced Rhetoric and Socially Situated Writing. The Handbook of Advanced Proficiency in Second Language Acquisition , 527-546.
Fletcher, J., & Jago, J. (2015). Teaching Arguments: Rhetorical Comprehension, Critique, and Response . Portland: Stenhouse Publishers.
Kjeldsen, J. E., Kiewe, A., Lund, M., & Hansen, J. B. (2019). The Rhetorical Canons of Speechwriting. In Speechwriting in Theory and Practice (pp. 55-74). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
