English 11 / Unit 7: Rhetorical Analysis
7.1 The Rhetorical Situation
Notes
Rhetoric is the art of using language effectively to communicate and persuade. Start any analysis by identifying the rhetorical situation.
- Speaker: who is speaking, and what is their background and credibility?
- Audience: who is being addressed, and what do they believe or need?
- Purpose: what does the speaker want the audience to think, feel or do?
- Context (occasion): when and where, and what events prompted the text? The need that prompts it is the exigence.
- Subject and tone complete the picture (together these make the SOAPSTone memory aid: Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject, Tone).
- Worked example: Lincoln at Gettysburg (speaker: president; occasion: dedicating a cemetery in 1863; audience: mourners and the nation; purpose: honor the dead and renew commitment to the Union's cause).
Practice
In rhetoric, the purpose of a text is:
Purpose is the goal of the message.
A mayor gives a speech to residents after a flood, urging them to volunteer for cleanup. Which choice names the audience?
The audience is the people being addressed.
The event or problem that prompts someone to write or speak is called the:
Exigence is the need or situation that calls for a response.
Ready for more? Take the Unit 7 test.