Ch. 3 Response

Rhetorical situation and rhetorical analysis are precisely what their names suggest. A rhetorical situation is the given scenario in which you are to write. Such examples would be writing an essay to get into the University of Missouri, creating a news article to be published in tomorrow’s paper, or simply writing a friend a birthday card. Rhetorical analysis is the process in which you decide the proper medium to deliver your writings. Serious, business-related writings would most likely require a letter or possibly an email, depending upon the manner of business, while informal situations such as party invitations can be sent via text message or a social media site such as Facebook.

When writing online, I would say that I appeal to logos the most, although I may touch on pathos from time to time. Most of the time, when I’m writing online, it is on social media sites. For example, when I’m writing a tweet on Twitter, I usually don’t need to prove myself as any sort of professional in a given category. “Last night, me and my cousin went to see Skyfall. Awesome movie, had a hell of a time.” I don’t need to be a movie expert (ethos) to be able to give my opinion of what I saw. I presented the facts and said how I felt about them.