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WRITING IS SITUATIONAL

IMAGINING KENNETH BURKES PARLOR

University of South Florida

Daniel Richards

drichar3@mail.usf.edu

Project Description
Every communicative act takes place in multiple layers of physical, social, and cultural contexts. No word uttered or written exists in a vacuum; that is to say, no word exists on its own without some sort of situation framing the exchange. According to Kenneth Burke, one can apply a critical technique called dramatism to structure the analyses of communicative exchanges. For Burke, channeling his inner Shakespeare, life is a drama in which every action (including communicative and thus rhetorical ones) consists of ve elements: I. II. Act: What happened? Scene: What is the background situation?

III. Agent: Who is involved and what are their roles? IV. Agency: How and by what means do the agents act? V. Purpose: Why do the agents act? What do they want?

Burke was of the mindset that the key to nding meaning in language, indeed rhetorical meaning, was to investigate and articulate the motives of those involved and the tools or means used to achieve said goals. For example, if you want to conduct a rhetorical analysis of the most recent State of the Union address, it is imperative that you rst know what the president wants (i.e., re-election; increased support from a certain group or demographic; a population that sees war as justied; a re-visioning of America). An understanding of the larger situation at hand makes the language used by people more transparent and ready for analysis. ! Rhetorical acts are not only dened by their context, however. The actual arguments being presented, the carefully-chosen words, the stylistic devices used, and the organization framing the act are key for a deeper understanding of the rhetorical act. An acute awareness of rhetorical techniques (i.e., metaphor), appeals (i.e., pathos), and faulty argumentation (i.e., fallacies) is necessary for the completing of a meaningful and thoughtful rhetorical analysis. ! So what? Why conduct these analyses? What uses do they serve? Well, not believing in the power of words to shape our reality and understanding of self and society does not make it untrue: fact is, the words we say grant us agency to move about in the world, and the words we hear have the power to frame the way we think, and thus act. Being critical listeners and observers of the language surrounding and enmeshing is the rst step to becoming a responsible and well-informed member of society. Passively consuming all information without thought and discipline is akin to passively consuming any substance without thought and discipline: both acts render the individual a slave to the substance and limited in capacity.
Prof. Richards ! Composition II

Objectives i) Identify the elements and structure of rhetorical situations and effective arguments. ii) Produce cohesive paragraphs and organization. iii) Successfully employ third person voice. Conventions i) Tone: analytical and formal. ii) Audience: academic peers and/or stakeholders. iii) Format: MLA, research paper style. Deliverable Write a 1000-word rhetorical analysis on an argumentative source (e.g. editorial; article) of your choice on a given topic that is debatable. Analyze the piece using the tools, concepts, ideas, sources, and resources discussed and related in class and from the readings. While the structure and organization of the essay is up to the individual student, each essay must touch upon the three core elements of a rhetorical analysis: I. II. Context Analysis

III. Larger Signicance Final essays must be uploaded to My Reviewers by Monday, July 9th, by 9:00am.

Prof. Richards !

Composition II