Rhetorical Knowledge

Students should demonstrate that they can focus on a well-defined purpose in writing, write clearly for a specified audience, use conventions of format and structure appropriate to the rhetorical situation, and adopt a voice, tone, and level of formality suited to the purpose and audience. They may also learn about and practice the following: responding to the needs of different audiences; responding appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations; writing in several genres; and exploring the ways different genres shape writing and reading.​

Lesson Ideas and Plans

The Rhetorical Situation: GRAPE it, K? (Lauren Poet)
Students will understand the importance of the rhetorical situation and how to identify the rhetorical situation (GRAPE it, K?). Students will demonstrate understanding by re-assessing the rhetorical situation for their own opinion editorials.

More Analysis, Less Summary (Erica Pratt)
In this lesson, we help students recognize the difference between analysis and summary and practice these skills.

Logos: Claims, Reasons, and Assumptions (Laurent Poet)
Students will understand the power of claims, reasons, and assumptions by understanding what they are arguing and why they are arguing it. By working as a class, they will identify claims, reasons, and assumptions and how they make up an argument.

Introducing GRAPE (Nate Wood)
This lesson helps students understand how to use the GRAPE acronym to help them analyze the rhetorical situation.

Introducing Audience (Nate Wood)
This lesson helps students understand the important of analyzing your audience and shaping a message to fit them.

Ethos and Pathos/Character and Emotion (Katie Johnson)
In this lesson, we explore rhetorical ways of building character and using emotional appeals; the lesson taps into current events with Serena Williams to do this.

Principles of Design (Katie Bullock)
Visual rhetoric and its principles are the focus of this lesson, where students look at poor examples and analyze them to understand how rhetorical principles apply in visual contexts.

Audience and Exigence (Katie Bullock)
Using personal examples and video clips, this lesson helps students analyze and gain practice with the principles of audience and exigence.