In the “The Rhetorical Situation”, Bitzer elaborates on the importance of rhetorical situation. Bitzer believes that rhetorical situation is undervalued. In the reading, he discusses the importance of exigence, audience, and constraints. Bitzer continually notes the importance of rhetorical situation, as he relates it to everyday life. Bitzer at one point relates exigence to the weather. He states that examples such as “death, winter, and some natural disasters” are living proof of exigence. He relates exigence to the people so the audience gains a better understanding on it. Bitzer states that exigence is a situation that can not be changed. The audience is those that are being persuaded by the rhetoric, and the constraints are the limits or the challenges that are placed on the writing. Every piece of writing involves rhetorical situation as the writer always has an intended audience and a point to be made. Rhetorical situation can be altered by any approach that the writer choices.
Personally, I believe Bitzer made good points on rhetorical situations. He did a great job explaining his definitions and relating the piece to aspects outside of writing. He relates it to the real world and thus acknowledges rhetorical situation in a broader scale. I like how Bitzer uses real life situations such as, “The Declaration of Independence, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Churchill’s Address on Dunkirk, and John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address”, and figures such as John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to support his claims. He did a great job engaging the reader and persuading them with his argument. Overall, I felt that it was a good piece and very helpful for the audience. One question that I would have for Bitzer is what elements of the real world can be altered by discourse?
In Emma Watson’s speech on feminism, her exigence would be for people to put an end to gender inequality. She believes that woman are fully capable to hold jobs that men hold and to take part in social activities, such as sports, just as men do. Her audience would be everyone at the United Nations, the media, and everyone tuning in. Her constraint’s would be the people that are against feminists, and another constraint was that she had to use real life examples in order to support her claims instead of her beliefs or bias. One example she used was how her friend had to quit sports because she was becoming too muscular.
Nice Sokol. I agree with how you said that Bitzer stated that the idea of rhetorical situation was undervalued. That is honestly what a lot of the passage supports. Also, I agree with your question being on which elements in the world can be effected by discourse. The constraints you mentioned in the Emma Watson speech really stuck out to me as well.
You did a really good job summarizing the article. I feel like you focused on the key points and made it easy to understand. You also made a lot of references to the article in your response and also executed the exigence, audience and constraints of Emma Watson’s speech. Good job, Soho!
You did a really good job on the summary, it was very elaborate and detailed. Your response was very specific, and you did a good job explaining your opinion.
I like how you acknowledge that fact that the writer had mentioned famous people such as Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, and John F, Kennedy, to attract more attention that these famous people are supporting his claims.
I like the summarizing of Bitzer’s piece, very informational. I like how you brought up rhetoric inside of an official document or speech because rhetoric is much more easily implemented in fiction. These leaders chose exactly how to deliver their ideas to sway the minds of those who disagree with them. I find their knowledge on the topic of rhetoric to be fascinating because it shows how English plays a huge role in many careers.