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 topic the ted talk released in 2016 is responding to is the negative reactions to speech that isn’t “normal”. The speaker Saleem delt with him getting negative feedback on his videos where the narrating was his voice and people left negative comments about his accent. The speakers motive was that a lot of people face the same issue and he is trying to challenge what is “normal”.

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 Saleem, he makes videos where he narrates the voice, his investment on the issue is that people harassed his videos because of his voice.

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 speaker spoke on the Ted Talk, Ted talk is were many different type of people can give speech, like motivational, inspirational, educational and etc.

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.

The authors intended audience is those who ridicule others accent and those who have a different accent. He wants to let them know that its perfectly fine to have a accent and you should embrace it.

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

The authors purpose is to educate others that their way of speaking is fine and they should be confident in their way of speaking regardless of what others say, because they can challenge the normal norm.

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

The author is arguing that You should use your own voice regardless of what other say.

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 conducts, scientific or other facts, general knowledge, historical references, metaphors/analogies, etc.

The evidence is that Saleem tried editing his voice to sound normal to others, but then he started being himself and challenging what normal is.

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 you can make about what the text does.

The author compares how in ancient times, people only labeled colors that they can create.

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

Why I keep speaking up, even when people mock my accent Saleem http://www.ted.com/talks/safwat_saleem_why_i_keep_speaking_up_even_when_people_mock_my_accent

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

I want to remember that you can do things like public speaking even though you are nervous about it.