Rhetorical Situations and Genres- Group 4

Genre and rhetorical situation are connected on different levels. Genres are based off of other people's past writing, and so the rhetorical situations vary for each genre. Rhetorical situations are based upon exigence, audience, and constraints. The three factors of rhetorical situations are interchangeable between all kinds of genres. Not all audiences and not all exigences are the same, hence why there are different rhetorical situations in different genres. Bitzer suggests the idea that when something new happens, someone must create a first response. From then on, when the situation repeats itself, new responses are based off of previous ones. Knowing this can help us understand everyday writing because if one understands the initial response to a situation, all responses after that build upon one another.  Rhetorical situations and genre are used in everyday writing in various ways. Everyday writing is thoughtless in a way and comes naturally. For example, a protest sign is a common example of everyday writing. Protests signs are big, loud, and bold. The audience is anyone willing to listen to the problem being protested. They are usually big and flashy, and catch the attention of an audience easily. Protest signs are the response to alarming news that people are passionate about. These signs range in size, shape, format, and materials. Some include short catchy phrases, and others include information to verify their statements or accusations. The way protesters present information on their signs is an indication of what type of response they want to occur for their cause. Dirk states, "... we can start to see how specific choices that writers make result in specific actions on the part of readers...", which fits perfectly on how the news and protest signs bounce off of one another. The protesters make a choice of how they would like to present their sign in a dependency of how formal or informal the cause is. For example, if someone has big and bold letters and is angrily shaking their sign, they are more likely just trying to be hostile and prove a point. But say someone is trying to protest a government action, they will be more effective if they print out leaflets with a call of action, instead of merely insulting policy makers. Observing everyday writing is something that comes naturally; we do not think of rhetorical situations and genres when we produce everyday writing, they are connected and it comes naturally to those writing.


Autumn R, Bryce S, Ansley S, Breyana B