CONNECTING READING AND WRITING

a) Rhetorical Choices

The choices that writers make when they write are called rhetorical choices.

Rhetoric, as it was defined by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, refers to the art of persuasion, to the way writers and speakers use languages to get something done, whether it be to change someone’s mind, to persuade someone to see your side of things, or to get someone to do something.

Rhetoric, then, is the deliberate use of language to create some kind of effect. Rhetoric involves the ART of making choices. It involves having to decide the best way to communicate in this given situation, on this given subject, and for this given audience.

Every time we communicate, we make rhetorical choices. We have to decide what tone to use in addressing our audience, what examples to use, what words to select, and so on. We do this all the time.

Writers make rhetorical choices, and their choices shape the way their writing is read. But how do writers make these choices? The choices that writers make are not made randomly or arbitrarily. Effective writers, in other words do not guess. Rather, they make calculated rhetorical decisions. Effective writers make thoughtful decisions as they write, and it is those decisions that ensure their writing is successful.

b) The Rhetorical Situation

So how do writers make effective rhetorical choices? They do so by looking closely at their rhetorical situation. Basically, the rhetorical situation is made up of reader or readers, the writer’s goal(s), and the context of writing. All three combine to form a situation that the writer must consider when she or he writes.

Writers do not write in isolation. Most of the time writers write within rhetorical situations that affect and limit the decisions they can make. This should not be treated, however, as a denial of a writer’s freedom. Think of how difficult (and perhaps impossible) it would be to write if such limitations did not exist. How would writers make decisions if there were no factors on which to base them? Almost paradoxically, these very limitations produced by the rhetorical situations prompt and enable writers to make creative writing choices.

Excerpt from “A CLOSER LOOK: the writer’s reader” Sidney I. Dobrin, Anis S. Bawarshi

McGraw Hill, 2003, ISBN 0-7674-1743-7