Responses to Rhetorical Situations Worksheet
For this assessment, review 3 passages from 3 different genres of writing you might encounter in your daily life. The title of each passage has been removed. Make informed responses about the following aspects of rhetorical situation for each of the passages:
Writer’s purpose
Passage’s audience
Genre of the writing
Passage’s context
Organization and structure of the passage
While there are no absolute right or wrong answers, your goal is to make informed responses about the rhetorical situation for each passage. Informed responses will include specific characteristics and examples from the passage that support your conclusions about the aspects of the rhetorical situation.
Review Tools for Investigating Rhetorical Situations. Because many details from the passages have been removed, this resource will help you spot clues to make better guesses.
Review the “Example: Written Passage and Rhetorical Situation Response” section of this document to guide for your own responses.
In the “Written Passages and Rhetorical Situation Responses” section of this document, read Passages 1, 2, and 3.
For each passage, complete the Rhetorical Situation Informed Response Table by writing an informed response about the rhetorical situation and noting specific passage examples to support your informed response. Do this by responding to the following aspects of rhetorical situation in the Aspects column:
The writer’s purpose
The audience
The genre
The context
The organization and structure
