Decide Your Rhetorical Purpose

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Your intended effect on the audience constitutes your rhetorical purpose. In a public speaking class, your purpose often will be assigned for each speech. Outside the classroom, your purpose may be assigned (for example, by your employer) or dictated by the context of a special occasion (such as a wedding, memorial service, or roast). For other speeches, the choice of purpose will be left to you. The scenario that follows shows how one public speaking student went about deciding her rhetorical purpose.

Amber’s instructor allowed his students to select their own topic and purpose for their first speech. Amber chose her major, theater arts, as her topic. She then considered a variety of purposes:

Each of these options could result in a speech that relates to theater arts on campus in some way. However, the rhetorical purpose of each would be different—to inform, to persuade, or to mark a special occasion. Therefore, each would have a different effect on Amber’s audience.