While writing this post fresh after reading the articles on the rhetorical situation and genre, I think it best to define what I take the two to mean. The first article by Lloyd F. Bitzer goes into great length describing many hypothetical statements about the rhetorical situation, as well as including a few examples. I find his words to be both captivating, as well as confusing, but I feel that it contributes to the overall message about the complexity and obscurity of the rhetorical situation. The rhetorical situation refers to the often unspoken aspects of the context that something is written in, and can often be overlooked by the reader. One way to clarify the rhetorical situation is trying to classify the piece in a genre, which is a categorical name generated for writings, and also lyrics, that attempts to organize them based on similarities. The second article by Kerry Dirk describes the country music genre of one that usually portrays some sort of loss, developed characters, and a distinct national pride.
I find Cristina's post to be particularly intriguing, as she brings about the notion that, "...rhetorical situations and genres are connected through the inner lying theme that a genre is created to make sense of repeating events that each generate a response." I myself thought that genre serves a purpose to reach an audience because of their perceived opinions about a genre, also something that Cristina mentions. At the end of the day, these works are published for an audience, and the goal will be to demonstrate a message that they must pick up. Writing, in the sense the Bitzer and Dirk describe, is meant to be analyzed by the audience on an intimate level, and while something like genre seems to pigeonhole a work and possibly make is shallow, it primarily allows the right audience to discover what the write is trying to say, while the rhetorical situation adds a deeper context for the audience to explore.
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