In the essay The Rhetorical Situation, Lloyd F. Bitzer presents some arguments to explain the theory of situation, which is the theory that the rhetorical discourse is a response to a situation. For Bitzer, a situation is rhetoric only when that needs discourse in order to modify that situation. Thus, the rhetorical situation involves exigency, audience and constrains. The exigency might be rhetorical, in the other words, might be positive modifiable only by means and arguments, while the audience are the mediators of change by the influence of the rhetoric. The constrains are part of the rhetoric situation, such as beliefs, facts, and traditions.
The points about rhetoric presented by Bitzer are deeper than I had ever considered before. First of all, I believe that the analysis of the situation can bring more arguments for a rhetorical response. It can help me to analyze the topics of my futures rhetoric essays, and not just superficially thinking about my audience. I can organize my ideas initiating from the exigency of my situation, as well as, the constrains of this situation. After that, I can think about how my speech can change the mind of a group of people, and how those people can change a situation where my exigency is inserted.
Bitzer brings some issues about situations that aren’t rhetoric and can’t be treated as rhetoric, it is interesting in order to define when I will use tools such ethos, logos, and pathos. An example is for scientific works, which doesn’t require the use of the rhetoric since the audience is a group of people who want to learn, and not a group of people who I want to change a situation by my speech. This fact brings me the knowledge that I never have to use ethos in any scientific paper or formal presentation about my major of civil engineering, since it requires only technical issues.
Reference
Bitzer, Lloyd F. - The Rhetorical Situation
The points about rhetoric presented by Bitzer are deeper than I had ever considered before. First of all, I believe that the analysis of the situation can bring more arguments for a rhetorical response. It can help me to analyze the topics of my futures rhetoric essays, and not just superficially thinking about my audience. I can organize my ideas initiating from the exigency of my situation, as well as, the constrains of this situation. After that, I can think about how my speech can change the mind of a group of people, and how those people can change a situation where my exigency is inserted.
Bitzer brings some issues about situations that aren’t rhetoric and can’t be treated as rhetoric, it is interesting in order to define when I will use tools such ethos, logos, and pathos. An example is for scientific works, which doesn’t require the use of the rhetoric since the audience is a group of people who want to learn, and not a group of people who I want to change a situation by my speech. This fact brings me the knowledge that I never have to use ethos in any scientific paper or formal presentation about my major of civil engineering, since it requires only technical issues.
Reference
Bitzer, Lloyd F. - The Rhetorical Situation
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