Bitzer Discusses The Rhetorical Situation Analysis

Grant-Davie describes thoroughly the term rhetorical situation and how the development of the definition and its constituents has contributed to the discovery of the motives and responses behind any discourse. The analysis of rhetorical situations could determine the outer or inner influences of the rhetors, the audience, and their particular constraints.

Kathryn Stockett, the author of The Help uses imagery to help the reader better comprehend the meaning of the passage. As the reader reads along in the passage reading about little Miss Skeeter, “Munching on peanuts, sorting through the pieces spread out on the table, a storm [raging] outside (Stockett 77). Through this imagery that the author provides the reader is instantly transformed into the world of little Miss Skeeter as she is sitting down by Constantine on a dark stormy night doing a puzzle. The reader can hear the crunch of the peanuts and smell the rain coming from outside as they read the passage. Stockett also uses diction to contribute to the imagery of the passage. Words like “ebony” and “frizzy” give life to the characters

"The Power of Situations”, by Lee Ross and Richard E. Nisbett, explains to the reader that the way humans respond to a situation is looked at wrong by most individuals. The authors tell how most people look at the wrong side of situations. On most occasions people look to see who the situation is happening to, instead of focusing on the situation itself and the proper responses that one would expect to see. The information in this passage would be most relevant to a student pursuing a psychology degree. Although, it could be read with purpose by anyone with interests in psychology. The authors provide accurate and significant information, while giving a great interpretation for the reader to understand.

Grant-Davie opens his writing with numerous definitions of a rhetorical situation. He then says that these definitions do not grasp the complexity of rhetorical situations. To fully understand a rhetorical situation, he suggests an analysis of the exigence, recognizing that rhetors and audience are both a part of a rhetorical situation, and that there may be multiple rhetors or audience. Grant-Davie then stated the four constituents in rhetorical situations that are exigence, rhetors, audiences, and constraints.

In the essay, Mark Twain is saying that humans are the lowest of animals. Instead of evolving from lower species, human have descended from higher ones. “In order to determine the difference between an anaconda and an earl (if any) I caused seven young calves to be turned into the anaconda’s cage. The grateful reptile immediately crushed one of them and swallowed it, then lay back satisfied. It showed no further interest in the calves, and no disposition to harm them… The fact stood proven that the difference between an earl and an anaconda is that the earl is cruel and the anaconda isn’t….” (Twain 2). This is one example Twain uses to explain to the reader one of the reasons why he believes man is the lowest of animals. This example tells

My definition of rhetoric before the readings was simply: successful written or oral communication with a clear purpose & audience in mind. After completing the readings, I have decided that is not specific enough and does not encompass what rhetoric really is. The readings by Crusus, Channell, and Drucker helped establish a clear relationship between argument, “mature reasoning”, and communication as a mode used to communicate. Both of the readings provided a clearer understanding of argument and communication, key components to rhetoric, but did not change my definition until I read “The Rhetorical Situation” by Bitzer. The idea of a rhetorical situation, provided a clear application of the question: “What is rhetoric?” in a historical, realistic

“We spend so much time listening to the things people are saying that we rarely pay attention to the things they don’t” (Smith 2014). Silence is a language that any person on this planet can understand. It invades awkward, but critical conversations and tricks the mind into not speaking. Silence, itself, is a rhetorical situation that every encounters, whether within themselves or with a million other people because it prevents the truth from coming out. Bitzer states that the rhetorical situation is “a complex of persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence”, while bringing in the characteristics of exigence, audience, and constraint (Bitzer 1968). I understand the rhetorical situation as a problem that is spoken about by one or more persons, often with the goal to solve it; however, to discuss the problem with the right people, gives way to positively changing the situation. In the problem of silence, there is exigence, audience and constraint in the urgency for silence to be broken, the ability to apply to all, and a constraint within our minds and the thoughts of others.

Rhetorical strategies are a variety of parts that make up an essay. The strategies include everything from explaining a process, to structure of writing. Whether the author 's purpose is to entertain, inform, or persuade, ultimately these strategies will strengthen not only the author’s purpose, but also the writing itsef. Typically when authors use these strategies, they are very precise to how they use them, and when deeply analysing a piece of writing, this is very clear. In Bell Hooks’ “Understanding Patriarchy”, she used rhetorical strategies to convey her purpose. Bell Hooks, is Gloria Jean’s pen name. Bell Hooks is an American author, socialist, and feminist. Her rhetorical purposes, are to inform and persuade. In her essay she is informing her audience about patriarchy.The definition of patriarchy is “a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is traced through the male line” (Dictionary). Hooks explains everything about patriarchy, she explains a religious perspective, a feminist perspective, and even a personal experience with patriarchy. To strengthen this, hook uses numerous rhetorical strategies. Hooks’ use of structure, tone, personal experience, logos, and variety of perspectives, support her purpose and strengthen her essay.

Tragedies, they will happen without a hint of awareness but they cannot be stopped or answered for. When they do occur it leads people to shock and grief. However tragedies brings forth something that gives people unity, hope, and direction. This something is called a leader and throughout history many people have embodied this quality. There are many instances where people have stood up an embodied this quality. For instance G.W. Busch during 9-11 and Abraham Lincoln with the Gettysburg Address. These two occasions might be different in many ways but they share a person rising to an opportunity to provide inspirational words for the people. Specifically, we can look at Ronald Reagan and how he rises to an occasion and unifies people while providing direction in a speech about the tragic “Challenger” event.

During the 1980s, space exploration was a popular topic to watch, listen to, and learn about in American life. NASA had already sent a lot of missions to space, all reaching new milestones and increasing interest in space exploration. The Challenger, however, had a different mission than the rest. It was going to carry the first teacher, Christa McAuliffe, into space where she would teach two lessons. There were six other men and women on board the Challenger. At this time, space exploration was at its peak and all of America was following the space program. Throughout the day, most of the televisions in the nation were tuned to the Challenger launch. One minute and twelve seconds into the launch, the space shuttle exploded. Such a traumatic

Now, the framework I decided to use for this article through analyzing is Lloyd Bitzer’s Rhetorical Situation. In his rhetorical situation, he explains how every situation can be analyzed rhetorically by looking at the interactions between speakers, subjects, audience and purpose. A rhetoric piece of work comes into existence for the sake of something far greater than the piece itself. In each rhetoric situation, he explains how there’s three main variables that come into play. First, you gave the exigence, which is the “reason.” The exigence is an obstacle waiting to be done and is the only thing can be modified. Second, you have the audience. The rhetorical audience consists of only the persons who can be influenced by the exchange or discourse.

Every day humans encounter rhetorical situations, yet hardly ever is a heated conversation or debate though of this way. Rhetoric, which is the art of conversation has been used for thousands of years across the world. Rhetorical situations constitute of four elements, the exigence, rhetor, audience, and constraints. All of these are equally the most important elements, because without each other the conversation would make no sense.

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An exigence is a reason, “a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done” (6). There will be many exigences, but, according to Bitzer, not all are rhetorical. Only those exigences that can be modified are rhetorical—the changes of season, Bitzer notes, are exigences, but nothing can be done to modify them. The audience is the second part of a rhetorical situation. For Bitzer, “a rhetorical audience consists only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change. […] “the rhetorical audience must be capable of serving as mediator of the change which the discourse functions to produce” (8). The constraints on a rhetorical situation emerge as a result of the “persons, events, objects, and relations which are parts of the situation … [and] have the power to constrain both decision and action needed to modify the exigence” (8). Sources of constraint include beliefs, attitudes, documents, facts, traditions, images, interests, motives, etc (8). Two main classes of constraints: those originated by the rhetor, and those which are operative. In order to support the claim of “Welcome to the Club” being a strong rhetoric it must be examined through text, reader, author, constraints, and exigence as Bitzer would see

Rhetorical analysis is an investigation into how someone uses his/her critical reading skills to analyze text. The objective of the rhetorical analysis is the study of how the author writes, instead of what the author wrote. At that point, we need to examine the method that the author uses to attain his goal. According to Jonah G. Willihnganz “A rhetorical analysis is an examination of how a text persuades us of its point of view. It focuses on identifying and investigating the way a text communicates, what strategies it employs to connect to an audience, frame an issue, establish its stakes, make a particular claim, support it, and persuade the audience to accept the claim”. From that definition, we are going to analyze Carroll’s essay about