Defi nition

Some might say that the rhetorical situation, an expression coined by Lloyd Bitzer, is the most important concept in writing.

According to Bitzer, all writing occurs within a rhetorical situation, and every rhe-torical situation has three components.

First, a rhetorical situation includes what he calls an “exigence,” or occasion for writing. More specifi cally, such an occasion carries with it both a sense of urgency and a promise that through writing, a composer can make a change to that situation.

Second (and while it may seem obvi-ous), a rhetorical situation includes an audi-ence that can be infl uenced by or react to the writing.

Rhetorical Situation

Third, a rhetorical situation by defi ni-tion has constraints, and they come in two forms. An author may bring certain con-straints to the writing, for example certain beliefs that infl uence how the author under-stands a given issue. Likewise, there are con-straints associated with the situation itself, for instance the frame of mind of the audi-ence or the environment in which they hear or read a text. Both of these constraints are part of the rhetorical situation because they can infl uence audience response and the po-tential of the writer to make change.

Importance in the Field

Although scholars disagree on which comes fi rst—the writing or the rhetorical situation—they agree that effective writers use the con-cept of the rhetorical situation throughout their composing processes. They use it as a way to frame a writing task, for example. And they use it as they compose, to be sure that their writing keeps its intended focus.

In sum, the rhetorical situation is the situation in which we all write—be it a text message; a resume; or a research project and poster.

Resources

Enos, Richard Leo. “The History of Rhetoric.” Coming of Age: The Advanced Writing Cur-riculum. Ed. Linda K. Shamoon, Rebecca Moore Howard, Sandra Jamieson, and Robert Schwegler. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook, 2000. 81–86. Print.

Lowe, Kelly. “Against the Writing Major.” Com-position Studies 35.1 (2007): 97–98. Print.

Lunsford, Andrea A. “The Future of Writing Programs—and WPAs.” Plenary Address. Conference of the Council of WPA. Grand Hyatt, Denver. 10 July 2008. Address.

Subject

Composer Audience

Context

Text, Genre, Medium

College Composition and Communication

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Genre

Definition

Importance to the Field

Resources

When the word genre is used, people often think in terms of textual forms—for ex-ample, the form that a sonnet or a review takes. Other times, people think in terms of categories of items they enjoy—for example, the genre of country music, epic films, or first-person shooter video games. Under-stood as categories, genres can be helpful as we try to group items by similarity or difference.

But writers often understand genres somewhat differently, in two important ways. First, writers understand that a genre is a response to a situation; in seeking to understand and respond appropriately to a situation, writers employ a given genre. Second, writers understand that genres function in a larger context. They are avail-able for use, but they have both a history and a future; when we write within them, we participate in the genre’s future, regardless of the shape that genre may take.

Genre, a term that in the modern history of composition has received less attention than the expression writing process, is just as important. It helps us understand what we do when we write: composers rely on the conventions of a genre when they write within them and when they write against them. Genre also helps us understand the continuity and flexibility of writing and texts: we see in the long histories of genres the ways that they have developed, always in response to the needs of a situation, and can sense the way that they may develop in the future.

Bawarshi, Anis, and Mary Jo Reiff. Genre: An Introduction to History, Theory, Research, and Pedagogy. West Lafayette: Parlor P and WAC Clearinghouse, 2010. Print.

Bazerman, Charles. Shaping Written Knowledge: The Genre and Activity of the Experimental Article in Science. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1988. WAC Clearinghouse Landmark Publica-tions in Writing Studies. 1 Nov. 2000. Web.

Coe, Richard M., Lorelei Lingard, and Tatiana Teslenko, eds. The Rhetoric and Ideology of Genre: Strategies for Stability and Change. Creskill: Hampton P, 2002. Print.

Freedman, Aviva, and Peter Medway, eds. Genre and the New Rhetoric. London: Taylor & Francis, 1994. Print.

Jamieson, Kathleen M. “Antecedent Genre as Rhetorical Constraint.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 61 (1975): 406–15. Print.

Miller, Carolyn. “Genre as Social Action.” Quar-terly Journal of Speech 70 (1984): 151–67. Print.

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