Alyssa Smith

Professor Dearing

ENGL 106

17 April 2015

Rhetorical Situation Memo

The following memo will serve to explain my rhetorical choices for my audio essay:

1. Audience: The audience for my audio essay is anyone listening to NPR for a book review of “2BR02B” and possibly deciding whether or not to read it. In order to match my essay to this audience, I chose to take a book review I had already written on this short story. I took out large pieces of text that although they were relevant, would make my audio essay too lengthy and would therefor bore them. So I tried to eliminate anything that was not absolutely necessary to my review. I then changed what was left into a script that was appropriate to be read aloud instead of to one’s self. This included adding small phrases and highlighting the important details even more and including small comments. All of this made my essay or script easier to read and sound more natural for an audible form directed towards listeners on a site similar to NPR.

2. Purpose: The purpose of my audio essay is to positively review Kurt Vonnegut’s short story and break down the themes and messages. I started out by clearly stating my purpose and gave a detailed description of what the plot of the story was about. I then talked about Vonnegut’s message of population control and how he used it in his story, both from the side of the general population and those higher up in society like doctors. I wrapped it all up by restating my purpose and telling readers how it relates to them personally and a final recommendation of the story. In order to achieve this purpose I emphasized the parts of my essay directly pertaining to my review and population control and showed how readers can relate to this story.

3. Genre: The genre for this assignment was an audio essay. However, within that format, I chose to present my essay as a professional review because I wanted readers to feel it was something they might hear on NPR. I wanted to keep things professional, yet interesting. I kept things formal, but not to the point that it would bore readers to listen to. I wanted listeners to be well informed and take away the main parts of the story and why they should read it. By choosing to try to do an NPR style review I think I reached out to an audience that wants to know more about “2BR02B” and hopefully be the final push they need to read it for themselves.

4. Stance: The stance of my essay was to recommend “2BR02B” to inquisitive readers. I wanted to show why it is important to read this story and break down the main theme so they have a better understanding of it as they read or reflect on it. My goal is to enlighten people of this story and encourage them to read it for themselves and look at the deeper meaning Vonnegut was trying to portray.