The Rhetorical Context and Professional Writing

If all we needed to worry about when writing as professionals was the message itself, professional writing would be easy--just say what you have to say and move on.  However, professional writing occurs within organizations, and organizations are composed of people, who are complex and often behave in complicated and conflicted ways.  And because organzations are composed of people, they also develop their own cultures, with value systems and ideals that need to be reflected in the documents you produce.  Basically, then, when we talk about the rhetorical situation, we're trying to figure out what factors within an organization and organizational culture will affect what we want to say and how we want to say it.  Keep in mind three fundamental principles about professional writing, that distinguish professional writing from other kinds of writing: Professional writing exists to get things done          One does not write as a professional to bare one's soul, get in touch with one's feelings, or exhilarate the slovenly masses with one's artistry.  One writes professionally to do something, or to get someone else to do something.  Of course, if one fails to take into account the complexities of the reader(s), then there's a real good chance that what one wants to get done, isn't done.  Success in professional writing isn't measured by eloquence; it's measured by effectiveness. Professional writing exists to benefit the organization first       The organization is paying your salary, and they are not paying you to express yourself.  They are paying you to get things done that will benefit the organization.  So taking into account the needs and culture of the organization is crucial. When you write as a professional, you write as a representative of the organization       Whatever you say, and however you say it, it needs to align with the values and ideals of the organization.  Thus it's important to understand the context of the organization.

 

The Rhetorical Situation

What is a rhetorical situation?  When we talk about the rhetorical situation in professional writing, we mean that any message we send occurs within a network of relationships and events.  In other words, there are factors beyond the message itself that affect how we communicate the message and how the message is received. 
Think about it this way: you've likely seen the Mac computer commercials featuring the cool young dude and the middle-aged suit.  The core message is simple--buy a Mac, not a PC.  But the advertisers create a context within which buying that Mac will align you with the forces of hipness (and conversely, buying a PC will align you with the forces of authoritarianism).  The advertisers understand how they want their message to be received, and they base that on what they understand to be the values of their targeted audience. 

To use another, less pleasant example, downsizing and layoffs have been an unfortunately common event.  Let's say one company lays off employees in the spring, and another lays them off two weeks before Christmas.  The message for both companies is the same.  But I'd be willing to bet that most of us would be more perturbed by the Christmas layoffs than the spring layoffs.  Why?  Because something about the context of Christmas alters the impact and the value of the message, even though the message is fundamentally the same.
So when we think about the rhetorical situation for an act of writing, we are trying to be aware of those elements that may affect how we communicate a message, and perhaps more importantly, how that message is received.  Generally the following elements are part of determining the rhetorical situation:

• Purpose -- What do we want to happen?  Are we writing to inform, persuade, correct, support, inquire? 
• Reader(s) -- Perhaps the single most important element, since no message is worthwhile unless someone "hears" it and responds to it (ideally responding as we would like the reader to respond).  Who is this person?  What is this person like?  What does this person think of you (assuming he/she knows you)?  What does this person think of the situation about which you're writing?  What is your relationship to that person?  What does this person know, not know, need to know?  How do you think this person will initally receive the message? 
• Corporate Culture -- What are the values and beliefs that inform the organization, and how does your message fit into those values and beliefs? 
• Culture outside of the Organization -- Will your message have an impact, directly or indirectly, on the world outside of your organization?  (This is often the case with messages that have ethical or moral issues embedded in them.)  

In the next post I'll show you how the rhetorical context plays out in written professional communication.