E LEMENTS OF R HETORICAL
S ITUATION
E LEMENTS OF R HETORICAL
S ITAUTION

Exigence

Rhetor

Audience

Constraints

Kairos
D EFINITIONS OF EXIGENCE


Lloyd Bitzer (1968)

“An imperfection marked by urgency; it is a defect, an obstacle,
something waiting to be done, a thing which is other than in should
be”

Must be publically observable, grounded in reality

Usually one main exigence control the situation
Keith Grant-Davie

the “matter and the motivation" of the discourse

Can be multiple exigences vying for dominance

Sees exigence as more complicated and less “objective” than previous
scholars
Q UESTIONS TO A SK TO
A NALYZE E XIGENCE

What is the discourse about?

Superficial Subject Matter


What is the explicit subject matter of the
discourse.
Abstract Subject Matter

What fundamental issues are represented by the
topic of the discourse?

What values are at stake?
Q UESTIONS TO A SK TO
A NALYZE E XIGENCE

Why is the discourse needed?

What has prompted the discourse?

Why is it the right time for the discourse?

Why are the issues important and why do they
need to be resolved?
Q UESTIONS TO A SK TO
A NALYZE E XIGENCE

What is the discourse trying to
accomplish?

What are the goals of the discourse?

How is the audience supposed to react to the
discourse?

What are the primary and secondary objectives
for the discourse?
A NGLE OF V ISION
(M ULTIPLE E XIGENCES )
D EFINITION
OF
R HETOR ( S )

Many scholarse argue that rhetor controls and
shapes the rhetorical situation through his
discourse (or lack thereof).

Roles of rhetor are partly pre-determined but
open to definition and/or redefinition.

Rhetors are those people, real or imagined,
responsible for the discourse and its authorial
voice”
The rhetor’s roles can vary from situation to
situation – it is not static

Q UESTIONS TO A NALYZE
RHETOR ’ S ROLE

Who is the rhetor of a particular discourse?

Individual or Multiple Rhetors (Rhetorical
Team)

What roles / identities does the rhetor have
outside the discourse?

What role / identity does the rhetor create
for herself within the discourse?

What role/identity is created for the rhetor
by others?
Q UESTIONS TO A NALYZE
RHETOR ’ S ROLE

Who or what does the rhetor represent?

A group or organization

A discourse community

A set of values and assumptions

What does the rhetor stand to gain with
his discourse?

What does the rhetor stand to lose with
his discourse?
D EFINITIONS
OF
A UDIENCE

Those who can directly impact the exigence
(Bitzer)

"Those people, real or imagined, with whom
rhetors negotiate through discourse to achieve
rhetorical objectives" (Grant-Davie)
FACTORS THAT C OMPLICATE
A UDIENCE

Audience is more fluid than ever

24 news cycle

Internet

Social networking eroding public/private
distinctions

Harder to keep your audience narrow and
specific

Passage of time also changes audience
Q UESTIONS TO A NALYZE
A UDIENCE

Who is in a position to address the exigence?

Is there are a real-time audience?

Who might be the possible or probable
audiences?

What audience is addressed WITHIN the text
itself?
Q UESTIONS TO A NALYZE
A UDIENCE

What are some of the potential values,
assumptions, beliefs, experiences and needs of
the intended audience?

What is the relationship between the rhetor and
the audience(s)?

What does the text want the audience to
become or to do?
D EFINITIONS OF
C ONSTRAINTS
Bitzer (1968)

“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).

Ex: beliefs, attitudes,
documents, facts, traditions,
images, interests, motives,
etc.
Grant-Davie (1997)

“All factors in the situation, aside
from the rhetor and audience,
that may lead the audience to be
more or less sympathetic to the
discourse and that therefore
influence the rhetor’s response
to the situation” (273).

Ex: the emerging discourse,
genre + conventions of language
use, discourse communities,
geography and social history
P OSITIVE & N EGATIVE
C ONSTRAINTS


POSITIVE CONSTRAINTS

Rhetorical assets

Those factors that work in the interest of the
rhetor.
NEGATIVE CONSTRAINTS

Rhetorical liabilities

Those factors that can hinder the rhetor’s case
Q UESTIONS TO A NALYZE
C ONSTRAINTS

What previous texts are already a part of the
emerging discourse of this specific situation?


Look at both immediate texts and background texts.
What genre/form of discourse does the rhetor
choose/have to create?

What are the expected characteristics / conventions
of the genre?

How do these genre expectations influence the
rhetor’s rhetorical choices?
Q UESTIONS TO A NALYZE
C ONSTRAINTS

What is the actual occasion for discourse? What
is the medium of publication/dissemination?

What discourse community is the rhetor seeking
to join?

What are the assumptions, values and priorities
of that discourse community?
Q UESTIONS TO A NALYZE
C ONSTRAINTS

What current cultural attitudes, values, trends
inform this situation?

What recent historical, cultural, or political
events impact the way a rhetor or audience
might view this situation?
W HAT IS A D ISCOURSE
C OMMUNITY ?

A group of individuals bound by a common interest who
communicate through approved channels and whose
discourse is regulated formally or informally.

has a broadly agreed set of common public
goals/interests

has mechanisms of intercommunication among its
members.

uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to
provide information and feedback.

utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in
the communicative furtherance of its aims.

in addition to owning genres, it has acquired some
specific lexis.

has a threshold level of members with a suitable
degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.
T HE I MPORTANCE OF K AIROS

Kairos = the opportunity for speaking, the
occasion that prompts communication

Kairos - timing

Long Term Vs. Short term

Appropriateness vs. Responsiveness