Rhetorical Reading and Situation

Directions : First, in a multi-paragraph introduction, summarize what you’ve learned so far about rhetorical reading and the rhetorical situation. What are they? How are they related? Why are they important and/or useful? You may want to explain the process, define key terms, and discuss their value. What you say about rhetorical reading and the rhetorical situation should apply to any text. Second, in the body of the paper, demonstrate the usefulness of rhetorical reading by applying the process to one text from the “Language Acts to Address International Issues” cluster listed on page vii of Language Acts (you may not select Bush’s speech because we’ll use it as our sample text during this unit). You should identify the key components of the text’s rhetorical situation and analyze where in the text the rhetoric is (or isn’t) responsive to her/his rhetorical situation. Your paper should present the rhetorical landscape in a way that is informative, interesting, and insightful. Finally, in your conclusion, you’ll bring the two components together to argue that applying rhetorical reading to your selected text deepened your understanding of it.