Defi nition

Some might say that the rhetorical situation, an expression coined by Lloyd Bitzer, is the most important concept in writing.

According to Bitzer, all writing occurs within a rhetorical situation, and every rhe-torical situation has three components.

First, a rhetorical situation includes what he calls an “exigence,” or occasion for writing. More specifi cally, such an occasion carries with it both a sense of urgency and a promise that through writing, a composer can make a change to that situation.

Second (and while it may seem obvi-ous), a rhetorical situation includes an audi-ence that can be infl uenced by or react to the writing.

Rhetorical Situation

Third, a rhetorical situation by defi ni-tion has constraints, and they come in two forms. An author may bring certain con-straints to the writing, for example certain beliefs that infl uence how the author under-stands a given issue. Likewise, there are con-straints associated with the situation itself, for instance the frame of mind of the audi-ence or the environment in which they hear or read a text. Both of these constraints are part of the rhetorical situation because they can infl uence audience response and the po-tential of the writer to make change.

Importance in the Field

Although scholars disagree on which comes fi rst—the writing or the rhetorical situation—they agree that effective writers use the con-cept of the rhetorical situation throughout their composing processes. They use it as a way to frame a writing task, for example. And they use it as they compose, to be sure that their writing keeps its intended focus.

In sum, the rhetorical situation is the situation in which we all write—be it a text message; a resume; or a research project and poster.

Resources

Enos, Richard Leo. “The History of Rhetoric.” Coming of Age: The Advanced Writing Cur-riculum. Ed. Linda K. Shamoon, Rebecca Moore Howard, Sandra Jamieson, and Robert Schwegler. Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook, 2000. 81–86. Print.

Lowe, Kelly. “Against the Writing Major.” Com-position Studies 35.1 (2007): 97–98. Print.

Lunsford, Andrea A. “The Future of Writing Programs—and WPAs.” Plenary Address. Conference of the Council of WPA. Grand Hyatt, Denver. 10 July 2008. Address.

Subject

Composer Audience

Context

Text, Genre, Medium

College Composition and Communication

CCC

PosterPage_100026.indd 1 12/23/2009 11:17:15 AM

Process

Definition

Significance

Resources

Writing classes engage students in writing processes, which include many activities—from participating in invention activities and conducting research to using document design principles to emphasize important points and copyediting to assure that the audience can easily read the text. There’s no one “good” writing process, and differ-ent writers like different approaches: some writers like to think on the page before beginning a writing task, while others like to jump right in and do research; and some others like to talk through a writing task with someone else to figure out what they think before beginning to research or write. Writing processes also vary according to task. A writer creating a narrative that is strictly imaginative may not need to do any research; a writer composing a lab report will need to collect data and analyze and interpret them in order to write a competent report; a writer completing a case study on

Process, in some ways, is the founding term of the field and still the central term of writing classes. Writing itself is a process with many kinds of subprocesses, and even though our writing processes are increas-ingly based on digital technologies, we still use process as the term describing our making of writing.

Cooper, Marilyn M. “The Pragmatics of Form: How Do Writers Discover What to Do When?” New Directions in Composition Research. Ed. Richard Beach and Lillian S. Bridwell. New York: Guilford, 1984: 109–26. Print.

Fraiberg, Steven. “Composition 2.0: Toward a Mul-tilingual and Multimodal Framework.” College Composition and Communication 62.1 (2010): 100–26. Print.

Journet, Debra, Cheryl Ball, and Ryan Trauman, eds. The New Work of Composing. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2012. Web.

Kent, Thomas, ed. Post-Process Theory: Beyond the Writing-Process Paradigm. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1999. Print.

Ronald, Kate, and Jon Volkmer. “Another Compet-ing Theory of Process: The Student’s.” Journal of Advanced Composition 9 (1989): 83–96. Print.

Tobin, Lad, and Thomas Newkirk, eds. Taking Stock: The Writing Process Movement in the ’90s. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook-Heinemann, 1994. Print.

pre-school children will need to do field ob-servations before drafting. Writing classes can provide students with an opportunity to try different writing processes; these are good opportunities to see how well a given writing process “fits” with a writer.

From Steven D. Krause, The Process of Research Writing, Version 1.0. 2007. Web.

L679-690-June14-CCC.indd 679 5/20/14 4:04 PM