Rhetorical analysis is a process of identifying the rhetorical situation of a project. The rhetorical situation is a process that examines the symbolic characteristics of a situation in order to identify the required response. The response involves choices about genre, language, content, length, order, design, and production of that response. For example, an employer who sends an email to a project manager with a question about progress on a particular project, expects an email in return. A Help Desk agent fielding the same kind of calls over and over again, which increases costs significantly, could direct users to an online help system or a FAQ that provides explanation for common activities, thus reducing the repetition.

To help you understand the dynamics of this process, I have divided the rhetorical analysis process into two sections both of which I use scenarios from Terrarium.

View: Identifying the Rhetorical Situation (File may be zipped. Save to your desktop and then unzip and open.)

View: Identifying the Rhetorical Situation Scope (File may be zipped. Save to your desktop and then unzip and open.)