2.1 Writing Purposes & Rhetorical Situation

Before drafting any piece of writing, from personal essays to research papers, you should explore what you want your readers to feel, think, say, or do about your topic. Whether it’s proposing a new  project, describing a process, simplifying a complex concept, or explaining a task, knowing your purpose is key to achieving your goal.

General Writing Purposes

The following are four general writing purposes; often  two or more of which are usually combined for greater effect:

• • • To Inform – Presenting information is one of the most common writing purposes. In academic writing situations, students often write papers to demonstrate their mastery of the material. Journalistic writing is the most common form of informative writing, but informing readers can have its place in every writing situation. For example, in narrating her experience of a childhood vacation, a writer may also work toward informing her readers about the beauty of a particular place.

• • • To Persuade – Persuasion is another common writing purpose. We have strong opinions on many issues, and sometimes our writing seeks to defend those views and/or convince the reader of the superiority of our position. Persuasion can take many forms, from writing to elected officials about the need for a new traffic light to an academic essay that defends the need for the death penalty in the U.S., but its aim is always to persuade. Personal essays also sometimes work toward persuasion; writers often illustrate their points through the use of narrative structures or examples.

• • • To Express Yourself – Self-expression, or self-exploration, can be the sole purpose of some writing situations, but it can also work to further establish the writer’s presence in a piece or to illustrate a larger point. For example, a student writing about his experience with drug addiction may use that experience to make a larger point about the need for more drug treatment options.

• • • To Entertain – Some writing merely entertains, while some writing couples entertainment with a more serious purpose. Sometimes a lighthearted approach can help your reader absorb dull or difficult material, while other times humor provides an opportunity to point out the shortcomings of people, ideas, or institutions by poking fun at them.

Specific Writing Purposes

Besides having one or more general purposes, each piece of writing has its own specific purpose—exactly what you want readers to come away with. For example, consider the differences between a paper that outlines how to change your car’s oil and one that discusses the reasons why you should change your oil. Each has its own specific purpose even though the topics are similar. Having a specific purpose in mind helps you define your audience and select the appropriate details, language, and approach that best suits them. It also helps keep you from getting off track.

In defining your specific purpose, you might begin by first asking yourself whether you are communicating information or trying to convince your audience of something. Let’s say you’re writing a basic guide explaining how to install a particular program on a PC for your co-workers working remotely—that would be an example of communicating. Now, let’s say you’re writing an email to those same co-workers explaining why they should install this new software, pointing out that it will enable them to complete certain daily tasks more efficiently and with greater accuracy—that would be an example of convincing.

Of course, in some cases your purpose may be to both convince and communicate: you might, for example, need to first convince your co-workers that they should install the new program, and then communicate the steps involved in doing so. With either approach, carefully considering your audience and defining your purpose(s) before you begin to write will help you to choose a logical format, an effective structure, and an appropriate tone. Identifying the right verb to indicate your specific purpose is a good starting point—here are some examples of commonly used verbs for both communicating and convincing:

Understanding the Rhetorical Situation

It is safe to say that when it comes to workplace writing, most of your readers probably don’t want to read what you’ve written, and even if they do, there’s a good chance they won’t read all of it. So how do you make get your reader to understand what you need quickly and efficiently? Start by completing a detailed needs assessment template to make sure you understand the “rhetorical situation” before you begin drafting the document.

The “rhetorical situation” is a term used to describe the the set of circumstances that shape how a piece of writing is created and understood, based on the relationship of the writer to the audience, the purpose and context of the message, and the message itself. To help define the rhetorical situation of a document, ask yourself:  “Who is talking to whom about what, how, and why?” (for more on this, see “Chapter 1: What is Technical Communication?”).

• • • WRITER refers to you, the writer/creator/designer of the communication. It is important to examine your own motivation for writing and any biases, past experiences, and knowledge you bring to the writing situation. These elements will influence how you craft the message, whether positively or negatively. This examination should also include your role within the organization, as well as your position relative to your target audience.

• • • AUDIENCE refers to your readers/listeners/viewers/users. Audience analysis is possibly the most critical part of understanding the rhetorical situation (see Chapter 2.2 “Understanding Audience“). Is your audience internal (within your company) or external (such as clients, suppliers, customers, other stakeholders)? Are they lateral to you (at the same position or level), upstream from you (management), or downstream from you (employees, subordinates)? Who is the primary audience? Who are the secondary audiences? These questions, and others, help you to create an understanding of your audience so that you can craft a message designed specifically for them.

• • • PURPOSE, as discussed above, refers to the overall goal of the communication, essentially why you’re writing it and what you intend it to accomplish.

• • • MESSAGE refers to what information you want to communicate. This is the content of your document. It should be aligned with your purpose and tailored to your audience. One of the most important aspects of being an effective technical communicator is deciding what content your audience needs and what content can be left out. Be sure to avoid wasting your audience’s time with unnecessary, irrelevant, or redundant information. Additionally, be sure your message is professional, your is tone appropriate for the rhetorical situation, and your format is suitable for your message.

• • • CONTEXT refers to the situation that creates the need for the writing. In other words, what has happened or needs to happen that has resulted in the need for communication? Context is influenced by such factors as timing and location, i.e., when and where the communication occurs; situation (also referred to as exigence), i.e., the reason for the communication; background, i.e., events relevant to the subject matter or topic; culture, i.e., shared beliefs and values; and medium, i.e., the type of communication, such as an email, report, presentation, or website. Because it shapes so many other factors, like language and tone, level of detail, and what content should be included, it’s important for technical communicators to carefully consider context—after all, the same message received in different contexts may be interpreted in very different ways, which could in turn lead to unintended consequences or awkward situations.    

Figure 2.1 shows the relationship of each aspect of the rhetorical situation:

Take the following practice quiz to test your knowledge so far:

Additional Resources

• “The Rhetorical Situation,” a video from Joy Robinson, UAH Technical Writing

• “Rhetorical Situations” (article from the Purdue OWL)

CHAPTER ATTRIBUTION INFORMATION

"Understanding the Rhetorical Situation." Technical Writing Essentials. [License: CC BY-SA]
"Rhetorical Nature of Technical and Professional Writing." Lumen Technical Writing. [License: CC BY-SA]