What is Rhetorical Situation

In this self-investigation, a first-year writing teacher explored her rhetoric before and after the shift to remote learning, which occurred as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, during the Spring 2020 semester. Based on scholarship in situational rhetoric and feminist ethic of care, the author investigated her written communications to the second language writers in her classes. Specifically, she scrutinized the course policies and procedures outlined in the course syllabus and in her written announcements posted in the course's learning management system (LMS). Grounding her discussion in extant literature, the author explored the implications of her rhetorical evolution on her future teaching and speculated on how the evolution would guide her instructional responses to future educational crises.