"Critical Situations" encourages students to identify “critical situations” in their communities, to develop rhetorical strategies for taking action in those situations and to produce community-based writing projects. 

"Critical Situations" is an inquiry-driven brief rhetoric that introduces students to ancient rhetorical methods for inventing and arranging texts. These ancient methods are integrated into contemporary public writing, advocacy and cultural studies approaches to composition as students write in response to situations in their communities, producing meaningful texts that motivate them to write.