Rhetoric: “performs some task. In short, rhetoric is a mode of altering reality, not by direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of discourse which changes reality through mediation of thought and action. The rhetor alters reality by bringing into existence a discourse of such a character that the audience, in thought and action, is so engaged that it becomes mediator of change. In this sense rhetoric is always persuasive” (4). “[A] work is rhetorical because it is a response to a situation of a certain kind” (3).
Rhetorical situation: “a context 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” (6).
Bitzer explains that rhetorical situation is made up of exigence, audience, and constraints.
Exigence
- “an imperfection marked by urgency; it is a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done, a thing which is other than it should be” (6).
- “is rhetorical when it is capable of positive modification and when positive modification requires discourse or can be assisted by discourse” (7).
- “In any rhetorical situation there will be at least one controlling exigence which functions as the organizing principle: it specifies the audience to be addressed and the change to be effected” (7).
Audience
- “a rhetorical audience consists only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change” (8).
Constraints
- “made up of persons, events, objects, and relations which are parts of the situation because they have the power to constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence” (8).
More, he says the following about rhetoric situations and discourse:
- “Rhetorical discourse is called into existence by situation; the situation which the rhetor perceives amounts of an invitation to create and present discourse” (9).
- The situation “invites a fitting response” (10).
- “If it makes sense to say that situation invites a ‘fitting’ response, then situation must somehow prescribe the response fits…One might say metaphorically that every situation prescribes its fitting response; the rhetor may or may not read the prescription accurately” (10).
- “The exigence and the complex of persons, objects, events and relations which generate rhetorical discourse are located in reality, are objective and publicly observable historic facts in the world we experience, are therefore available for scrutiny by an observer or critic who attends to them” (11).
- “Rhetorical situations exhibit structures which are simple or complex, and more or less organized” (11).
Complex: when many elements must be made to interact” (12)
Highly Structured: “when all of [the situation’s] elements are located and readied for the task to be performed” (12)
Loosely Structured: caused by “complexity or disconnected” in situations, audiences, exigencies, and so on
- “[R]hetorical situations come into existence, then either mature or decay or mature and persist – conceivably some persist indefinitely" (12-3).