Week 2 Journal

Rhetorical situations and genre are connected primarily because genre is one of several elements of rhetorical situations. Genre is often defined as a variety of different classifications, styles, or categories of any given subject. In terms of writing, we see genre as a way to distinguish one style of writing or literary work from another. Writing may be done to compose a fiction novel, a poem, or a news article. Rhetoric, the art of effective or persuasive communication or discourse, goes hand-in-hand with genre because rhetorical situations help form the development of genres. According to Kerry Dirk's "Navigating Genre", a rhetorician by the name of Lloyd Bitzer concluded that someone must create a response to a new situation that may occur. whenever the same situation occurs again in the future, people will typically use that first response from when the situation originally occurred as the basis for the response in the second occurrence. as the same situation occurs more and more, responses are followed up from response after response, thus forming a new genre. 

Understanding rhetorical situations and genre and how they go hand-in-hand with each other can provide us with a strong understanding of everyday writing and why we engage in everyday writing. situations may pop up spontaneously on a daily basis, such as an email or a text, and it is up to us, the people, to give the proper responses to those situations. We accomplish this by simply sending a reply back to whomever may have sent you an email or a text. understanding genre may help us categorize these situations. For example, sending a text to your friend would be interpersonal, while taking notes during a class lecture may be considered intrapersonal. Having a solid understanding about how rhetorical situations and genre work ultimately helps in comprehending everyday writing and how it may occur on a daily basis.