Rhetorical Situation Worksheet

Your name: Noelcarlo Degante

Completing this worksheet may take more time than you think. It’s worth the time. The information you gather will help you later when writing up assignments. But more importantly, the process of addressing each of the questions below will slowly work to change how you read texts. Keep in mind that some answers will not be obvious or even observable in the text, and so you may have to do some critical thinking and, at times, even some online research. Use full sentences. Take as much space as you need.

Context & Exigence: What topic/conversation is this text responding to? What year is the text published? What is the exigence–that is, what motivating occasion/issue/concern prompted the writing? The motivating occasion could be a current or historical event, a crisis, pending legislation, a recently published alternative view, or another ongoing problem. 

The text is responding to the topic of immigrants assimilating in new countries, but more specifically the experience of Chinese immigrants living in America and how they way they speak effects them and their children. This text was published in 1990, a year after her most famous novel “The Joy Luck Club” was published. She was likely inspired to write more about her experiences following the success of her novel because it got her thinking about asian representation in literature and how she likely isn’t alone in the experiences she had growing up.

Author: Who is the author of this text?  What are the author’s credentials and what is their investment in the issue? 

Amy Tan is the author of Mother Tongue. She has a bachelors degree in English and a masters degree in linguistics. She has also written several other books such as “The Kitchen God’s Wife” and “The Moon Lady” but is especially known for her novel “The Joy Luck Club” that she released in 1989. She is the daughter of a Chinese immigrant so this issue means a lot to her.

Text: What can you find out about the publication?  What is the genre of the text (e.g., poem, personal essay, essay, news/academic article, blog, textbook chapter, etc.)? How do the conventions of that genre help determine the depth, complexity, and even appearance of the argument? What information about the publication or source (magazine, newspaper, advocacy Web site) helps explain the writer’s perspective or the structure and style of the argument?

Mother Tongue was first published in “The Threepenny Review” which is a magazine based in Berkeley, California. Mother Tongue is a personal essay based around her life and her experiences and how she believes it relates to others going through the same things she did. “Mother Tongue” is practically a literal title because the story revolves around her Mother and the way she speaks and how it has impacted Amy Tan growing up. The essay being written amongst other stories helps to show that the author intended to be relatable and its almost as if she is reaching out to others to tell them she’s been through what they have gone through.

Audience: Who is the author’s intended audience? What can you infer about the audience (think about beliefs and political association but also age, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, profession, education, geographic location, religion, etc.)? Look for clues from the text (especially the original publication) to support your inference.

The author’s intended audience are readers of her books, her mother, and anyone who can share a similar experience to her’s. The audience can be anyone but I can infer that they are more likely to be Chinese/Asian, lower to middle class, liberal/progressive, and being more collectivist as opposed to individualistic.

Purpose: What is the author trying to accomplish? To persuade, entertain, inform, educate, call to action, shock? How do you know?

The author is telling a story about her mother tongue and how the the “broken” English her mom spoke to her impacted her life. In doing so, she is trying to educate the reader on a possible explanation of the lack of asian representation in literature. This is because the story seems to build to this reveal.

Argument: What do you believe is the main claim/idea/argument that the author is trying to communicate? What stance does s/he take? 

Although asian representation in literature was an important part of the text, I believe that the main claim the author tries to communicate is that the way you speak and understand a language is not a true reflection of you as a person and should not be used to define you. Amy Tan uses her mother as an example to support the claim.

Evidence: How is the argument supported? Types of support include reasons and logical explanations as well as evidence. Types of evidence include anecdotes, examples, hypothetical situations, (expert) testimony, quotes, citing sources, statistics, charts/graphs, research the author or another source conducts, scientific or other facts, general knowledge, historical references, metaphors/analogies, etc. 

This argument is supported through the anecdotes told throughout the story. For one, her mother in the stockbroker story where although she spoke English in a “broken” manner, she understood more about stocks than most people. When they spoke she understood exactly what they meant. Another example was when Amy’s teachers tried to steer her towards math and science instead of writing because it looked like it wasn’t her strong suit. Also, despite not using statistics in the text, she used general knowledge to claim that lots of Chinese students go into engineering and that there are so few Asian Americans in creative writing programs because of people like her teacher’s steering them away from writing in favor math and science which they appeared to excel in.

Rhetorical Strategies: What aspects of this text stand out for you as a rhetorical reader? In other words, what do you observe about what the author strategically does (consciously or not) in hopes of appealing to their audience? List here as many observations as you can make about what the text does. 

To me, I think it’s the way the text is structured and using anecdotes that connect with each other to progress the story that appeals to the audience. First we are introduced to the author where she claims she is not a scholar of English or literature, she is just a writer. Next, we are introduced to her Mother in a story where Amy is talking in front of a crowd while using these sophisticated and long sentences with perfect English. Her mother is in this crowd listening to her daughter use English she has never used with her. Then she gives an example of the English she would use with her Mother, this “broken” English that was easy to understand but caused her Mom to not be treated seriously. Then more stories about a stockbroker who wouldn’t send her check and a hospital visit where they could not be bothered to help her find her CAT scans that would both be remedied by Amy using her perfect English to get people to take her Mother seriously. Amy then makes a realization that despite speaking perfect English, her understand of it has been affected by her Mother Tongue and that she struggles to score very highly in English achievement tests so it appears that she is far better in math and science. Therefore, her teachers try to steer her towards math and science and its get her to wonder if this has happened to everyone in similar circumstances. These generalizations and stories help to explain real world trends such as the majority of Asians choosing STEM fields for careers and asian representation in literature being low.

Citation: Add the correct MLA or APA bibliographic entry for this text. Use easybib.com if you prefer.

Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” The Threepenny Review, 1990, pp. 7–8.

Notes: What do you want to remember about this text?

I want to remember that regardless of differences, life puts people through very similar situations. I can relate to this text because I am the son of immigrant parents. I know full well that my mom, despite speaking that same “broken” English, fully understands the world around her. She obviously isn’t dumb and should be treated with the respect that anyone who speaks “unbroken” English is treated with.