Rhetorical Situations Claims and Evidence

📋 Course Outline

1. Arguments as Ongoing Conversations
2. Elements of Rhetorical Situations
3. Exigence as the Writing Impetus
4. Purpose and Writer Goals
5. Audience and Strategic Choices
6. Context and Message
7. Claims and Defensible Positions
8. Evidence and Reasoning
9. Types and Reliability of Evidence

📖 1. Arguments as Ongoing Conversations

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions

• Unending conversation : The Philosophy of Literary Form, 1941 — Kenneth Burke’s metaphor for arguments as discussions that began before a writer entered them and continue after the writer leaves.

📝 Essential Points

• Almost all writing responds to something, and academic writing commonly responds to texts that the writer has read and discussed with peers.

• To enter an ongoing conversation, a writer listens long enough to understand the argument, contributes a position, responds to others, and eventually leaves while the discussion continues.

💡 Memory Hook

A late guest enters a heated parlor conversation, listens, and adds a response.

📖 2. Elements of Rhetorical Situations

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions