Our understanding of rhetorical situation can help us understand everyday writing by forcing us to think about everyday problems and how we solve them. Bitzer describes rhetoric as, “a mode of altering reality, not by the direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of thought and action.” In other words, the reader is the writer’s audience. The audience should read the piece of everyday writing, such as an article. The purpose for the writing should become clear to them as they read it. Based on what they find in the writing, they can place it into a specific genre.
Our understanding of genre can help us understand everyday writing because it is how someone expresses his or herself in what he or she writes. For example, when a story focuses on a couple in love, it is categorized as a romance story. If a detective is trying to solve a murder or find a stolen jewel, the story is a mystery. Readers can tell what genre the story is by what is happening in the story.
Rhetorical situations and genre are connected because of the way they are simplifying how we think of things. Rhetorical situations require an audience, purpose, and the genre the writer is aiming for. In order for a rhetorical situation to exist, a genre must be decided before the writer begins to write. This allows the writer to make the situation specific to what their story is, and convey what they want to say in a specific way to the audience.
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