Analyzing Rhetorical Situations

“Rhetorical situation” is a situation that occurs when someone is communicating of some sort, whether it is verbal or written. But if you want to succeed in these situations, you cannot rely on luck. You have to organize, prepare and think through what and how the message you send out or receive is built up. You have to understand the relationship between writer/speaker, reader/listener, text/speech and medium (communication form. Ex. poster, letter, informative speech)

“Rhetorical analysis” is to analyze the “rhetorical situation.” You do this with asking questions about the writer, reader, text and medium. For example, if you are writing a text, you, as a writer, have to figure out why you are writing. You have to be able to see it from the reader’s perspective too; who is your audience and how can you use your style of writing to inform, persuade or entertain them in the best possible way? You need to think through your text; are there any restrictions on the assignment? What text genre is most effective? And last; what medium do you want to use? Posterboard, essay, email? Also, when analyzing your rhetorical situation, you should think through what appeals you use: logos (appeal to things that are logical), pathos (appeals to emotion, beliefs and values) and ethos (the appeal to the authority of the speaker or writer).


When I write online, do I think I appeal most to pathos, logos or ethos? Well that depends on how we define “online.” If we are talking about online social medias such as facebook, I guess I in general appeal most to pathos, because I use social media to expose my feelings and to figure out how my friends are doing. But if it is an online assignment such as this assignment in my English class, than I appeal most to logos, because we usually write texts that are supposed to be objective and informative. But I also try to appeal to ethos so my texts seem trustworthy.