Bitzer's Argument on the Article "The Rhetorical Situation"

E15- Fundamentals of Academic Writing
Prof.
Fall 2020
SRR – Bitzer's "The Rhetorical Situation"
Date
Summary – What is Bitzer saying in "The Rhetorical Situation?" What is his argument?
Bitzer argues that a rhetorical conversation is generated to respond to an exigency. He further asserts that a situation needs a "fitting" response and that the context controls the reaction (10). Bitzer begins his piece "The Rhetorical Situation," asserting that he had not theorized the rhetorical situation properly; thus, he purposes to put down a theoretical foundation about the relationship between rhetoric and situations. He describes a rhetorical situation as "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" (1). Bitzer highlights three issues that are the basis of his argument; exigence, audience, and constraints. Exigence refers to a problem that exists in the world. Human interaction like death should change exigence for it to qualify to be rhetorical. Exigence also becomes rhetorical when it can yield positive modification, which leads to persuasion (7). On audience, Bitzer says that a rhetorical conversation initiates change when it influences an audience positively (7), while constrain is connected to the audience. It refers to the action or force needed to influence an audience (8). Constraints could be facts or beliefs. Rhetoric happens when a leader or a speaker answers to an exigence by communicating to an audience capable of acting upon the given urgency. This happens because the situation triggers the reaction or response, leaving the rhetor with very little agency.
Response – What do you think of Bitzer's argument in "The Rhetorical Situation?" What parts make sense? What do you agree with? What parts don't make...