The rhetorical situation, purpose, put simply is the reason(s) for writing. Whether it is to merely inform (provide information), to persuade others into siding with us on a certain topic (reasoning & arguing), sharing a personal experiences (literacy narratives) or to entertain (amusement). It is ultimately to think about the reaction that your audience will have towards your writing. The purpose is what we come across before deciding on the genre, as it will decide the form of writing that you will use to cover your topic.

 

 

 

 

 

I had an understanding of what Purpose is in writing, but usually got it confused with exigence at the beginning of the semester. But as the semester went on, I had the chance of analyzing every rhetorical element closely, and I started to understand that exigence was simply the motivation behind your topic, which was really different from ‘the reason’ why you are writing. For example, the purpose behind the topic of free college tuition in my argumentative based essay, is to convey to my audience that they should not be tricked by how great of a idea this might sound, and that its true results would lead to disheartening consequences in our economy and society. My purpose was to also offer my audience a way to think of better alternatives to improve the affordability of college tuition for the people that truly need it. This is what I wanted to accomplish in my writing, that allowed me to strengthen the clarity and focus of my persuasive piece.