Rhetorical situations

Callie Olive
English 101, Section 056
11 September 2007
Short Writing Assignment # 4


There is a significant difference between David Friedman’s blog about low cost cooling ideas and a rhetorical situation found on facebook or myspace. Unlike the high school and college aged audience facebook reaches, Mr. Friedman’s blog was intended toward a different audience. Friedman’s audience consists of homeowners above the age of twenty. Another difference deals with the “E” in TRACE. Exigence in Friedman’s blog has to do with decreasing the cost of running air conditioning in a household. However, when dealing with facebook or myspace situations, one might find themselves confronted with a problem about student parking, classes, or problems concerning the opposite sex.
However, there are some similarities between the forums of blogs and facebook. Both can be used to address argumentative views on subjects. They both reach an audience of some sort, and possess constraints. An example being the audience feels constrained to doubt the validity of something written in a blog or on a facebook. If a person has a working email address he or she could easily make a facebook, or for that matter a blog. Therefore, absolutely anyone could post ideas, thoughts, arguments, or opinions in a blog or on facebook. As we saw in class the other day the ability to post false information in one of these forums is a relatively easy task.