Writing for Business Success/Organization and outlines/Rhetorical situations
Read Chapter 12 Introduction and 12.1 in Business Communication for Success. These readings explain how understanding the rhetorical situation, or speech context, will help you choose the best ways to connect with audiences and express your messages. By focussing on the audience, you shift your view to an ‘other-orientation,’ which is the key to becoming an effective speaker. The rhetorical situation involves three elements: context expectations, audience, and presentation purpose. This means you need to consider the ‘who, what, where, when, why, and how’ of your speech from the audience’s perspective. What is relevant to your audience? How can your information help them? Where is the common ground between their perspectives and your own? These readings provide practical guidance on how to answer these presentation planning questions.
Recommended: Do the two Introduction exercises, which ask you to practice organizing sentences and words in logical ways, and Chapter 12.1 Exercises 2-5. Two of these exercises ask you to identify the rhetorical situation elements in different presentation contexts. The other two exercises invite you to practice your writing and planning skills for different audiences.
