The Purpose of Writing Hasting
The Rhetorical Situation – the context in which you are interpreting a reading or composing a piece of writing or a visual
writer
exigence PURPOSE
audience message
Exigence is the reason or problem that makes you, the writer, want to write.
When language can solve a situation, the solution is rhetorical.
The audience is the reader or readers who have the capacity to do something about a problem.
A clear understanding of your audience—its values, concerns, what it knows, helps you to write effectively.
Specialized – people who you know are interested in just one thing – if you are a part of this specialized audience you know what kinds of words to use to get them to sit up and notice your writing – a more generalized audience might not get it. They might thing you are being overly emotional, or not emotional enough in your presentation.
Diverse – this is an audience that has an interest in a subject, but some of them know a lot more than others about the subject. Some may even know more than you do. You have to keep them all interested and that can be a tall order. As a writer, you have to be aware of the level of understanding of each member of your audience and use words and details in your writing that all will appreciate.
Multiple – this is the one you will deal with most in college. First, there is a primary audience, however, you also are aware than a secondary audience may also read what you have written. As a writer, you have to gauge your words and your tone for both audiences. In college, your primary audience might be your English teacher, then you decide to reuse this essay as the basis for an essay you turn in for history or psychology. Now you’ve got two audiences, and each is looking for something different.
Context – the time, place, audience, writer, and the medium of delivery (newspaper, journal article, webpage) all impact how we write and what we say to our audience. Even cultural circumstances, social situations, religious beliefs, and politics will affect our writing. All writing is written in a context, and your readers will know to read it in that context too. Any time a writer writes and a reader reads they do
