January 17th Homework

These articles show insight to rhetorical situations and genres and what they contain. A rhetorical situation indicates the presence of a theme. Bitzer recalls some of the most famous speeches in history by Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and John F. Kennedy to illustrate this point. The common themes in these speeches are that they took place during critical situations in history. During these rhetorical situations these leaders stepped up to the plate during times of crisis. He even states that Winston Churchill in particular looked for these so-called “finest hours” Rhetorical situations usually involve the altering of the situation that takes place at the start of the story. In the Kerry Dirk article the author uses country music lyrics as an example to show that you don’t have to fit stereotypes for something to be a genre. Most genres usually are a response to another genre that has already been created. It is rare that someone gets to have complete freedom and create their own genre. Dirk uses Washington’s first inaugural address as an example because since he was the first person to ever do it he could set the tone and say whatever he wanted. Now all Presidents after him are responding to his initial address and all the presidents that came before them. These articles show that rhetorical situations aren’t usually created but they are a situation in which a person finds themselves in and they try and make the most of it.