Define the terms audience, purpose, genre, context, and exigency, You can look at the Writer's Handbook text in section 1.1 Reading to Understand for some of the definitions and you can google the rest. Once you define those key terms, read on.
Learning Outcomes 2 and 3 in your Syllabus for this course say that by the end of this course, students will be able to:
TRANSFER: Succeed at new writing challenges by using prior experience and knowledge of writing studies’ threshold concepts to use writing rhetorically for audience, purpose, genre, and situation (among other factors), and exigency.
ANALYZE: Identify how writers use writing rhetorically for audience, purpose, genre, situation, and language (among other factors).
So what do audience, purpose, genre, situation (or context), language, and exigency have to do with you, your writing, and this class? One of the main goals of the course is (as was discussed in the NWWK homework from last week of the benefits of learning about writing studies on pgs 18/19 or 53/54 in the ebook): for teachers to " help their students consider potential audiences and purposes they can better help them understand what makes a text effective or not, what it accomplishes, and what it falls sort of accomplishing. Considering writing as rhetorical helps learners understand the needs of an audience, what the audience knows and does not know, why audience members might need certain kinds of information, what the audience finds persuasive (or not), and so on. Understanding the rhetorical work of writing is essential if writers are to make informed, productive decisions about which genres to employ, which language to act with, which texts to reference, and so on." What does this all mean? Basically, writing teachers teach students how to approach a writing situation (or rhetorical situation) and analyze it using audience, purpose, etc, so that they can decide HOW and WHAT they are going to write in order to communicate in the most effective way possible. In other words, at least while you are in college, how you can write for every class and every professor and every type of writing assignment.
A rhetorical situation is any instance of communication and all the variables that influence it (as listed in your syllabus (under key terms p 2) such as audience, purpose, genre, context, language and exigency. Discuss how each of these terms influence the following rhetorical situation (at least 5 sentences): A professor gives their students a writing assignment in response to the never-ending barrage of gun violence on college campuses. The students must write a persuasive essay that will be submitted to their college newspaper on whether or not their campus is safe.
Who is/are the audience(s)-remember that there can be multiple audiences?
What is the purpose of the assignment (there can be multiple purposes)?
What is the genre and context of the situation?
What types of language or vocabulary would be most effective here?
And finally, what is the exigency of the rhetorical situation?