Rhetorical Situation Worksheet

Your name: Jordan Rodriguez

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.

1. Context and 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.

This text is responding to the conversation about immigrants learning English, and how they are perceived by others. The text was published in 1990. The exigence for writing it is that the author wants to share her experiences as an Asian immigrant and as a non native English speaker. This helps others who have gone through the same thing feel connected, and those who haven’t understand it better.

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

The author of the text is Amy Tan. Her credentials and her investment in the issue are that she experienced it first hand, and is teaching her readers about it. Her experiences add to the discussion about language and the identity of immigrants.

3. 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?

This article was published in 1990 by Amy Tan. This was possible since she was an English major in college. The genre of this text is personal essay, and this is so she can share her insights and her reflections on her past experiences with language and identity. The conventions of the personal essay genre help contribute to the depth, complexity, and appearance of the argument by allowing the author to connect her own observations and experiences together so they can be part of the overall conversation about the topic of immigrants’ English understanding. The story being published by The Threepenny Review indicates that has been reviewed well and is made to be part of the social and cultural immigrant discussion.

4. 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 intended audience is those interested in the discussion about the issues immigrants face. I can infer that the audience contains immigrant Asian Americans, especially those who struggled with English in school like the text says that she did.

5. 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 educate readers who may not have grown up with the same struggles as her. This is important so they can be more open minded and understanding for asian americans and immigrants in general in their lives. I know this because she specifically writes about how it impacted her career.

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

The main claim she is communicating and her stance is that the broken English does not make her or her family inferior to others, but actually that it’s a part of her identity. She is arguing that she is still valid and has proven she can be a successful writer despite her struggles.

7. 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.

She supports her argument that she can be successful despite her struggles with english as an immigrant through her story. She mentions how she was told writing was her worst quality both in school and professionally, yet she is able to do it and be a successful writer after majoring in it in college.

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

I want to remember the way this text informed me on the difficulties immigrants face with english, and how much harder it is for them to go through the education system than students who grew up speaking english.