Rhetorical Situation Worksheet

Your name:

Kritan Baniya

Completing this worksheet may take more time than you think. It’s worth the time. The information you gather will help you later when writing up assignments. But more importantly, the process of addressing each of the questions below will slowly work to change how you read texts. Keep in mind that some answers will not be obvious or even observable in the text, and so you may have to do some critical thinking and, at times, even some online research. Use full sentences. Take as much space as you need.

Context & Exigence: What topic/conversation is this text responding to? What year is the text published? What is the exigence–that is, what motivating occasion/issue/concern prompted the writing? The motivating occasion could be a current or historical event, a crisis, pending legislation, a recently published alternative view, or another ongoing problem.

The text was published in 1985. It is responding to the discrimination of Black English, and racism against Black Americans. The motivation for the text is June Jordan’s experience as an educator and the murder of Reggie who was unarmed, by cops.

Author: Who is the author of this text?  What are the author’s credentials and what is their investment in the issue?

The author is June Jordan. She was a educator and an activist for civil rights and women’s rights.

Text: What can you find out about the publication?  What is the genre of the text (e.g., poem, personal essay, essay, news/academic article, blog, textbook chapter, etc.)? How do the conventions of that genre help determine the depth, complexity, and even appearance of the argument? What information about the publication or source (magazine, newspaper, advocacy Web site) helps explain the writer’s perspective or the structure and style of the argument?

The publication is Boston South end press. It is a nonprofit publisher that publishes books by activist authors. This also explains why the author published it here as she states that when she reached out to Tv news reporters, Newsday rejected her piece, and the village voice didn’t print her piece when she was trying to raise awareness about the murder of Reggie.     Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_End_Press

Audience: Who is the author’s intended audience? What can you infer about the audience (think about beliefs and political association but also age, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, profession, education, geographic location, religion, etc.)? Look for clues from the text (especially the original publication) to support your inference.

Her intended audience is those who look down on and try to eliminate Black English. The audience is white and those who speak White standards of English.

Purpose: What is the author trying to accomplish? To persuade, entertain, inform, educate, call to action, shock? How do you know?

The author is trying to inform and raise awareness that Black English is just as correct as standard English. You know this because when she began writing the piece to raise awareness of the murder of Reggie, she and her class proudly choose to write it in Black English.

Argument: What do you believe is the main claim/idea/argument that the author is trying to communicate? What stance does s/he take?

I think that the argument that the author is trying to communicate is that Black English is also correct and should not be eliminated. Also, those who use black English should embrace it and not forget it.

Evidence: How is the argument supported? Types of support include reasons and logical explanations as well as evidence. Types of evidence include anecdotes, examples, hypothetical situations, (expert) testimony, quotes, citing sources, statistics, charts/graphs, research the author or another source conduct, scientific or other facts, general knowledge, historical references, metaphors/analogies, etc.

The evidence is that she actually starts a class teaching her students Black English, and uses black English in important pieces of literature.

Rhetorical Strategies: What aspects of this text stand out for you as a rhetorical reader? In other words, what do you observe about what the author strategically does (consciously or not) in hopes of appealing to their audience? List here as many observations as possible about what the text does.

I observed that she dedicated a few pages to showing and teaching the differences and translations of Black English to Standard English, or vice versa.

Citation: Add the correct MLA or APA bibliographic entry for this text. Use easybib.com if you prefer.

Jordan, June. Nobody Mean More To Me Than You And the Future Life of Willie Jordan. Boston: South End Press, 1985.

Notes: What do you want to remember about this text?

I want to remember that some of the issues the text goes over, is still occurring in today’s time.