Rachel really like how you explain the concept but also use example and evidence  to back up what you was talking  about. You also help understand more of the reading. You explained what you was talking about so it helps  me understand what your writing.

In “The Rhetorical Situation” by Lloyd F. Bitzer, he defines what a rhetorical situation is and the components that make up a rhetorical situation. Bitzer mentions how rhetorical situations is defined by “the context in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse”(Bitzer 1). One of Bitz’s main arguments is that there must be a situation for rhetors to come up with arguments. He provides an example of this by talking about Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, this is consider to be a rhetorical situation in which it influences social actions. Bitz mentions the three main components that make up a rhetorical situation which are exigence, audience, and constraints. He states how “exigence is rhetorical when it is capable of positive modification and when positive modification requires discourse or can be assisted by discourse”(Bitzer 7). This shows how exigence demands a proper response and it can be fixed by using rhetoric. The audience is an important factor because they are the ones who listen, interpret, and hopefully influence to enact a change. They are in between rhetoric and putting things into action. To add on, a rhetorical situation contain constraints which involves people, events, objects, and relations. These constraints have an effect on the audience and rhetor, when the orator enters the situation, the orator can have “ personal character, his logical proofs, and his style”(Bitzer 8), this can create a disconnection with the audience and rhetor.

Bitzer’s definition of rhetorical situation works  around three components exigence, audience, and constraints. He goes in depth with the three components and explain   and he also gave us example. Rhetor brings his own imperatives to the circumstance and any of these requirements may can possibly influence the intensity of the talk. When reading the rhetorical situation by Lloyd Bitzer, he has shown me what the meaning of a rhetorical situation but  many time during the read he confused me or I like that I interpret what he was say in a different way. For example when he explains the concept of audience in a rhetorical situation what it meant and what role they play. Bitzer explains “ 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). What I got from this is  that not everyone is an audience member could hear a speech but choose not to act on what the speaker is saying. But there was some text that i had trouble understanding. An example of something that i trouble with was the concept of exigence I’m having trouble finding out what it means. An example would be “a defect an obstacle, something waiting to be done”(6) how i look at the concept of exigence is that not all situation are rhetorical. I wanted to know if I’m correct.

Throughout the reading, “The Rhetorical Situation,” by Lloyd Bitzer, I learned that a rhetorical situation is when persons, events, objects, and relations have a demand that can remove a topic by introducing the situation it can limit people’s decisions and actions to finding a solution to the demand. In addition, there are three types of rhetorical situations: exigence, audience, and constraint.

A rhetorical exigence is “. . . a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done . . .” (pg. 6). Rhetorical exigence is basically the reasoning towards why the rhetorical situation was being made. However, a rhetorical exigence is when there’s an action that can be made to change the situation and that addresses the rhetorical situation. In the essay, Bitzer uses the example of pollution to demonstrate what a rhetorical exigence is; pollution can be reduced by having awareness and taking action of the situation.

An rhetorical audience “. . . consists only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change” (pg. 8). Only the people that the rhetorical exigence is affecting or are interested in would be the rhetorical audience. For example, if someone gave a speech of elimination of animal cruelty, only the attention of people were interested about animals well being would be drawn by those actions. Those people would be categorized as the audience of specific topic.

A rhetorical constraint is “. . . 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” (pg. 8). A rhetorical constraint is when anything or anyone has the power to restrict the people from letting the demand occur. For example, there could be two sides of a situation if one side is well supported with arguments and evidence by a well known figure compared to the other side, people would mostly be restricted.

Something that catched my attention was how Lloyd Bitzer refers to what a rhetorical response is. In the essay, Bitzer states, “(7) Finally, the situation controls the rhetorical response in the same sense that the question controls the answer and the problem controls the solution” (pg. 6). Bitzer refers to different situation have different solution which is called rhetorical discourse and to find one people usually develop thoughts and actions. People develop thoughts and actions to figure out the different solutions to different situations, everything is determined by the other. In the essay, Bitzer uses the example of the fishermen fishing, he describes the fishermen’s actions before and after one of them almost catches a fish, the situation of obtaining the fish, and the solutions being shouted out to have the fish. This is an example of rhetorical discourse.

In “ The Rhetorical Situation “ by Lloyd F. Bitzer he states that a rhetorical situation is shown depending on what the situation may bring. Whether is be for political reasons (deliberation ) like the Declaration of Independence or like the Lincolns Gettysburg address or it could be about any person, object, or thing. There are 3 constituents that are in any rhetorical situation which is exigence, constraint , and audience.“ An exigence is rhetorical when it is capable of positive modification and when modification requires discourse or can be assisted by disclosure(Bitzer 7).” An exigence can change anything and anyone in a positive way if they choose to listen, show any interest, or if it was addressed in a way where the audience can understand where you are coming from and see it from  your eyes. Now a rhetorical disclosure can change someone’s perception about something and influence someone’s action/decision but there has to be an audience. “ A rhetorical audience consist only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by disclosure and of being mediators of change(Blitzer 8).” Lastly, the rhetorical situation has constraints which consist of people, objects, events that are related to the situation. In which orators have the power to modify the situation by harnessing the constraints or adding additional important constraints.

One idea that did stick out to me was the fact that there were 3 components needed in a rhetorical situation. Also the fact that it could come in many ways. Like the fact it was used during historical events like the Winston Churchill Gettysburg address

What I gather from reading “The Rhetorical Situation”, by Lloyd Bitzer, was that a rhetorical situation is basically when a specific situation is in need of a solution. This was made clear to me when he stated that “……rhetorical because it is a response to a situation of a certain kind.”(page 3), which explains the idea of in order for it to be a rhetorical situation it must have a response of some sort. In this essay he also talks about the fact that “there are three constituents of any rhetorical situation”(page 6):

• Exigence: Which is like the purpose for what the rhetorical situation is being made(“an imperfection marked by urgency”page 6). It is any problem that can be change through an action, and that the rhetorical situation can address. Ex: if you were to be having a speech about racism, and how it is wrong, then racism would be the exigence.
• Audience: This is an easy concept since it refers to the group of people who are capable of acting on the exigence stated, “consists only of those persons who are capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change” (page 8), in other words just the people that the discourse is being directed to. Ex: if you were making a speech on a college campus, about a topic such abortion, then your audience would be the women on that campus.
• Constrains: This one is in my opinion the trickiest one, since is not as simple as the other 2.  According to Bitzer, constrains is a “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”(page 8). In other words is anything that limits the audience from acting on the exigence. Ex: if any controversial figure were to have a speech, its reputation and and the audience thoughts and view on that person, could be consider a constrain.

In Lloyd Bitzer’s article, “The Rhetorical Situation”, he brings up the elements that take part in rhetorical situation, he defines and breaks down his thoughts towards the circumstances in which rhetorical discourse is created. Blitzer states that rhetorical situations are defined by ” the context in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse.”, he also mentions that a rhetorical situation can change depending how people decide to respond to it. Blitzer provides a theory that consists of three key elements, exigence, audience, and constraints. Exigence, “it is a defect, an obstacle waiting to be done…”, however, it is not rhetorical when it can not be altered by human interaction, it is rhetorical when it is capable of creating positive change. Audience, this consists of the people who are capable of being influenced by the discourse, the discourse encourages change through the audience’s decisions and actions. Constraints are the people, events, and objects which may limit the change called upon by the discourse.

Lloyd mentions that “Rhetorical discourse is called into existence by the situation; the situation which the rhetor perceives amounts to an invitation to create and present discourse.” . This interested me when I first began reading this article because it made me stop and think. I realized that a change can not occur unless there is a situation at hand. The situation is what creates the discourse, rather than the discourse creating the situation. I found this is very relatable to issues going on in today’s world such as, gun laws, many protests involving equality for woman and minorities.

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