Medium



Medium

Introduction

During the English 101 class, the average student will be introduced to some things that may or may not seem familiar to them. In unit one, one thing the instructor will cover is the term “rhetorical situation” (as described in the overlook below) on an in depth level. He does so because this is one thing that will appear quit often throughout the semester. When writing the different essays in the different units, all the students will be expected to consider their rhetorical situation for each and every assignment that is going to be turned in. It is going to be a big thing that will be looked at by the instructor and graded on in a serious manner because it is a major subject that is really stressed right from day one in the class, so it will be expected of the students to consider it thoroughly.

Brief overlook at Rhetorical Situation

Rhetorical situation happens to be the circumstances that affect writing or other communication. Rhetorical situation includes the purpose, audience, tone, genre, stance, medium, design, and context. All eight of these subunits must work together to create a well written paper. The rhetorical situation must be considered more-so in the beginning of the writing process so there is an idea of where to start. Consider the purpose and ask yourself, “What is the point of this prompt?” and that might also answer what the genre is. When the purpose and genre are thought out, consider your audience. Who are you presenting/writing for or to? That will then lead you to your stance. Think about what the relationship is between you and your audience; are they friends, teachers, strangers, etc.? After your stance is thought of, that should help with determining the tone. Do you want to be objective, supportive, skeptical, serious, etc.? Context would more than likely be the next step because this is where an individual needs to think about what has already been said about the topic at hand as to what the audience already knows and how they can add new information or their own voice to the conversation. Medium and Design are two subunits that seem more like the same thing, they really work together. This is where one considers how they are going to present their writing/presentation.

What Is Medium?

One of the eight things that makes up rhetorical situation is the medium. Medium is often described as a form of general communication, how something is shown or presented to someone or something such as a teacher, a class, a community, or even a club. It is how you would like to convey the information to others and what you would like it to look like to the individual(s) that you are presenting it to. Choosing a medium could sometimes be a simple thing to do, but sometimes it could also be a quite challenging obstacle.

How do you decide what medium to use?

Often in the English 101 class the students are not really given the opportunity to choose their medium, but if you are given a choice to pick the medium, make sure to choose wisely. When considering what form of medium to use, you need to first think of how you want to look to your audience. Do you want to look serious, warm and inviting, whimsical, informative, etc.? After you take that into consideration, then you need to think about what would work best for the information at hand. Would it be better to have it printed, spoken orally, or in a digital form? Often the choice of medium will also help enhance the information being presented. If you choose to have it printed would it be beneficial to have it in paragraph form or some other type of format. Could you add some appropriate charts, pictures, graphs, maps, etc. in order to help enhance your writing, or you could choose not to add them to make it seem to be more formal. When choosing the medium it would be a good idea to only go with what is most appropriate for the topic or information at hand. For example, if you are presenting something small to little children one could choose to add lots of colors, pictures, and small words so that the audience will be able to understand what is being presented to them; whereas if one was presenting their case in a court setting, colors and childish pictures would not be an appropriate choice. A more formal look would be more appropriate using things such as charts or pictures that help prove their position in court. This is where keeping your audience in mind comes to play. The eight subunits must all work together in considering the rhetorical situation.

References

Lunsford, Andrea, Michal Brody, Lisa Ede, Beverly J. Moss, Carole Clark Papper, Keith Walters. Everyone’s and Author with Readings. New York: Norton, 2013.