What is a rhetorical situation? How is it defined? What makes a rhetorical situation? In Lloyd Bitzer’s The Rhetorical Situation he tells us, when asking what a rhetorical situation is, “I want to know the nature of those contexts in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse.”
If a person were to search “rhetorical situation” online, they would come up with the definition, which is, “The rhetorical situation is the circumstance of an event that consists of an issue, an audience, and a set of constraints.” Now, to me, that isn’t the easier to understand. So, I would say in my own words that a rhetorical situation is the way you persuade, inform, entertain, or educate your audience. It is the setting of which you are trying to give your audience.
If I were to think of a rhetorical situation that I know about, I would have to say the first thing that comes to mind is Greta Thunberg. She persuaded her audience to do something about climate control and gave them a call to action. She wanted to persuade us all to open our eyes to what is really happening in the world. She wanted to get into people’s heads in order for them to change their ways.
A rhetorical situation occurs any time an issue needs to be resolved. Whether it be something as small as the bathroom being too dirty at the store or something as big as the wildfires in Australia. An audience can be persuaded to do something about the issue rather than sit around and let it be.
Works Cited:
Purdue Writing Lab. “Rhetorical Situations // Purdue Writing Lab.” Purdue Writing Lab. Accessed January 27, 2020. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/academic_writing/rhetorical_situation/index.html. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1994. Bitzer, Lloyd F. "The Rhetorical Situation." Philosophy and Rhetoric 1, 1 (1968): 1-14. 27 January 2020
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6 replies on “Rhetorical Situation”
Ceci-
I love how you referenced Greta Thunbergs speech about climate change, that made absolute sense and was the perfect example of rhetorical situation.
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I wasn’t sure if I had grasped the concept of a rhetorical situation, but after reading this I think I had the right idea about it.
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l iked how you started with a few questions. this really made me interested and drawing to what you wrote about. I can really connect to your ideas since it is very clear and the concept even more detailed
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I saw rhetoric as a persuasion tool as well, but decided to broaden it even further after that. But at it’s core, even when you tell a story all you’re trying to do is persuade them to listen to you.
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Ceci, Rhetorical situation is the perfect vehicle for change when you are discussing big topics like wildfire or apocalyptic climate change. I think what Greta does is indeed an attempt at a Rhetorical situation, but I don’t think she is really all that successful. Multiple times she gets made and raises her voice and says “How dare you” and those actions, i think, don’t succeed in persuading anyone. If there’s an urgent need for action, yes understandable, but there have been way better speeches during times of crisis that didn’t insult the audience.
I think good rhetorical situations or good attempts at persuasion, the speaker approaches the audience with respect and intelligence, calling them to do better things or lead better lives as an action of encouragement and not reprimand.
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I love how you see rhetorical situation as a call to action and i would like to hear more about the different type of arguments you talk about come with facts. is rhetorical situation enough to move people, does it need to coexist with something?
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