Exercise 3
After reading Keith Grant-Davie’sarticle about rhetorical situations, try to apply what you’ve learnedfrom it to some real-life rhetorical situations. For this assignment, you’ll choose some texts and analyzethe rhetorical situations that brought about those texts in order todetermine the constituents of thosesituations, as Grant-Davie defines “rhetorical situation.”

In a nutshell, you’ll choose two texts and identify their exigences, rhetors, audiences, and constraints. Itmay help to think of this assignment as a continuationof, or companion to, “Identifying Motives, Values,and Appeals”in the previous lesson. You might even choose, as one of your texts,the same text youchose as your second text in that assignment.

Therefore, as with the previous exercise,you might choose your texts from among the following:

A short YouTube video (such as a Super Bowl commercial)
A brief news report or editorial
A post from your favorite blog
An infographic
A brief comic strip
Others (consult with your instructor)

You may choose the format your analysis takes. It is just as appropriate here to make a bulleted list ofeach constituent as it is to write complete paragraphs for each situation.

Be sure to include some sort of access to your chosen texts (links, scans, bibliographic information, etc.)

Rubric:

Successful analyses of your chosen texts will include the following traits:

It identifies the exigences, rhetors, audiences, and constraints for both rhetorical situations. (8points, or 1 point for each constituent for each situation)
It includes access to each chosen text. (2 points, or 1 point for eachtext)

Exercise 4: Responding to Rhetorical Situations
In the previous activity, you analyzed some outside rhetorical situations. Now, think aboutsome of the rhetorical situations youvedirectlyencountered in your life.Choose threeof those situations. They can be everydayrhetorical situations,such as when yougo to the checkout counter at a grocery store, or they can be special situations, such as when you broke up with a significant other orwhenyouencouraged a friendin the faith during a time of struggles.
For each of your three chosen rhetorical situations,determine what the constituentsof the situation are(asdefined by Keith Grant-Davie). What is the exigence of the situation? Who are the rhetors and audiences? What are the constraints? You may choose, additionally, to identify other rhetorical elements of the situation (such as the motives,kairos, or appealed values).
Finally,include how you respond or have respondedto these rhetorical situations and how each of theconstituentshaspossiblyinfluencedthatresponse.You might instead consider how your response, in turn, shapes the situation.
Rubric:
A successful reportwill include the following traits:

It identifies theconstituentsof the rhetorical situation”the exigence, rhetors, audience, and constraints”for each of your three chosen situations. (12points, or1pointsfor each constituent for each situation)
It includes an explanation or exploration of how you respond(ed)to these situations. (3points, or1 pointfor each situation)
It includes some consideration about how the rhetorical situation may have influenced your response or how your response affects the situation. (3 points, or 1 point for each situation)

Total possible score:18points

Grant-Davie: “Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents”(pages 484-508)