Rhetorical Rationale Eng112 Wilkes Community Co

Rhetorical rationale assignment

When you post your finished multimodal project, you should also post a “Rhetorical rationale” reflection along
with it. You can think of it as an introduction/preface to your project, explaining to your audience what your
goals are with this project and how your rhetorical choices helped accomplish those goals. It should be a
minimum of 250 words (about half a double-spaced page). Although the reflection doesn’t have to be super
formal, it should be a cohesive, polished piece, NOT stream-of-consciousness freewriting or a list of answers to
the guide questions.

Overall, the purpose of the rhetorical rationale is to describe how your remix appropriately addresses the
rhetorical situation (i.e., purpose, audience, genre, medium) for which it was created. Use the following list of
questions to help you consider and organize your reflection. You do not need to answer each and every
question, but you should try to cover the main areas:

1. Rhetorical objective

• What was your overall goal in presenting your causal-proposal the way you did (e.g., brochure,
podcast, etc.)? How does your multimodal text satisfy your goal(s)?

• How much did you adapt the original essay for the remix? Why were those changes necessary for
the purposes of this project?

2. Audience awareness

• In what ways did you identify and address your audience?

• What type of voice/tone did you adopt and why? How was this choice rhetorically appropriate
considering your rhetorical objective and audience? How was this voice/tone different from the
one(s) you assume while composing in other genres?

3. Genre

• What medium and genre did you work in and why, considering your objective and audience?

• Were there other media/genres you considered composing in? If so, what were they and why did
you ultimately decide to go a different direction?

• In what ways did the medium/genre you used assist or limit the delivery of your text?

4. Arrangement

• What organization scheme did you use and why? How does this organization meet the needs of your
audience for this text?

5. Reflection

• What did you learn from doing this project (about multimodal composing, about using a particular
genre and medium, about appealing to an audience, etc.)?

• If you had more time to continue this project, or to re-do it, what might you revise, change, or do
differently?

• In what ways was creating this text similar or different to creating a traditional academic essay?
Which do you prefer composing and why?

6. Additional

• Did you run into any complications/limitations/problems with this project that you want me to know
about?

7. Sources

• How did you credit your sources for this project? Why did you choose to do it that way?