Reading and Writing Rhetorically

The purpose of this section is to introduce students to the basics of reading and writing rhetorically. All reading and writing involve rhetorical moves, and understanding a few basic elements will help students become more intentional and critical.

By the end of this section, students should be able to understand and recognize concepts such as the rhetorical situation, context, audience, purpose, and genre. Later sections of the textbook shift from understanding to rhetorical generation. If “Reading and Writing Rhetorically” helps students think critically reading and writing assignments, later sections, such as “Writing Analytically,” “Writing to Inform,” and “Writing to Persuade” invite students to generate their own compositions. These later sections build on the rhetorical foundation of the current section while also introducing new strategies that are associated with particular genres of writing.