NARRATOR: Today, we're going to talk about the rhetorical situation. So what is the rhetorical situation? It's basically the idea that no writing exists in a vacuum. 

Anytime you sit down to write, you are responding to a particular set of circumstances, beliefs, and biases that are going to influence what and how you write. That's the rhetorical situation. So let's break that down a bit, starting with purpose. 

Purpose is what you hope to achieve with your writing. You might be trying to argue your point, to teach, or even to entertain. Purpose will dictate a lot of the choices you make as a writer, and your purpose exists within a particular rhetorical situation. It might actually be helpful to think of your purpose as at the center of a triangle, with each of the points as part of the rhetorical situation. 

So let's start with the first of those points, the writer. Let's remember how identity and experiences of the writer can influence a piece of writing. Writers bring their own ideas, emotions, and values to their writing, as well as their own credibility. All of these can impact the kinds of writing that they create. 

The next point on the triangle is the audience, or the people or groups that the writer is trying to reach. Just like the writer, the audience also brings their own ideas, emotions, and values to a piece of writing. So it's important for the writer to consider their audience carefully when making decisions about the text. 

The final point of the rhetorical situation triangle is the issue, or the topic being discussed. This may seem obvious, but many topics have been discussed long before a single writer starts to write. Therefore, when considering the rhetorical situation, it's important to understand and consider the ongoing conversation about the issue and how a new piece of writing contributes to that conversation. 

Each of these three points of the triangle are connected by other rhetorical choices that can serve the writer's purpose. One of the most important of these is genre, or medium-- basically, the way that a message is conveyed. This might be a book, a speech, a movie, or even a social media post. Often, in academic writing, the genre is determined by your instructor, but in other writing contexts, you will want to carefully pick a genre that best suits the rhetorical situation and your purpose. 

And all of these various parts of the rhetorical situation are surrounded by the broader context of a piece of writing, almost like a circle enclosing the triangle. Context is all of the events, people, and ideas that are going on around a piece of writing when it is written. Often, we read and understand texts based on the other things that are going on around them. 

For example, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech was written in the context of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and is responding to many of the social situations that were taking place at that time. Even though we might still read the speech today, it is important for us to understand its original context, to be able to unpack the reasons King made certain rhetorical choices. 

All of these ideas together make up the rhetorical situation, and considering these elements can make you a much stronger writer. So the next time you sit down to write, consider, What am I trying to accomplish? Who needs to hear this message? What has already been said about this issue? 

What is going on around this issue? What experiences, biases, and knowledge am I bringing to the conversation? If you consider these elements carefully, you will be able to construct a clear and impactful piece of writing.