Rhetorical Situation

True or False: The culture, time period, history, and surrounding events do not influence the rhetorical situation.

• TRUE

• FALSE

TRUE or FALSE: The speaker is the persona created by the author in order to better persuade the audience.

• TRUE

• FALSE

TRUE or FALSE: A speaker/writer's PURPOSE is the end game, the goal, the thing that he/she wants to accomplish with words.

• TRUE

• FALSE

TRUE or FALSE: Exigence is different from purpose because it is more about what is compelling the author/speaker to say something, and less about what he/she wants to accomplish.

• TRUE

• FALSE

In considering the audience, one must examine

• The audience's assumptions or beliefs

• The audience's values

• The culture that a specific target group in the audience may be immersed in

• All of the above

In "Homeless' by Anna Quindlen, which of the following is NOT part of the speaker's persona?

• Quindlen has an "Irish grandfather."

• Quindlen has an "overactive sense of place."

• Quindlen does not have a strong love of home.

• Quindlen is a journalist "doing a story on homeless people."

Which of the choices below is NOT one of the details in the CONTEXT of "Homeless" by Anna Quindlen?

• "[Homelessness] is a difficult problem, and some wise and compassionate people are working hard on it."

• The city of Chicago had recently seen a rise in homeless people.

• People in the city don't understand "that those without homes would rather sleep [sic] huddled in doorways than go to shelters."

Answer explanation

This story was written for and published in the New York Times, not in Chicago.

Which of the following does NOT explain Quindlen's exigence-- or compelling force to speak out?

• "...children who do not understand what it means to go to their rooms because they have never had a room..."

• "Painted blue."

• "It has been customary to take people's pain and lesson our won participation in it by turning it into an issue, not a collection of human beings."

• "I was doing a story on homeless people."

Answer explanation

The desire to write a story for the newspaper, the injustice of children with no rooms, and the social issue of not noticing or wanting to see people who are homeless, all drive Quindlen to speak. The detail of the room painted blue is just that--a supporting detail.

Quindlen's purpose is most likely to...

• Inform the audience of the realities of homelessness by giving statistics and examples.

• Persuade the audience to shift their perceptions and assumptions about people who have no homes.

• Convince the audience to start dealing with the issue of homelessness by following a city revitalization plan.

• Narrate the story of a person who is homeless in the hope that her story will make homelessness more relatable.

Quindlen's target audience is likely...

• People who distance themselves from homeless individuals by thinking of homelessness as an issue, not a group of people.

• People who are more economically stable and don't understand why homeless people don't just "go to shelters."

• People who understand the value of what a home is, who love their home and those "dumb things about it."

• All of the above.