Blog Post #9

            Lloyd Bitzer wrote “The Rhetorical Situation,” in which he explains how rhetorical discourse is brought into existence through situation; that discourse is the response to a situation just like an answer is a response to a problem. The three different components of Bitzer’s rhetorical situation include: exigence, audience, and constraints. From this reading I believe that exigence tends to be the problem in a present situation that needs persuading in some aspect.  It is the thing that is mostly out of place and not generally right or how it’s supposed to be. Bitzer stated, “Any exigence is an imperfection marked by urgency; it is a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done, a thing which is other than it should be.” There will be many exigencies but they are not always rhetorical unless they can be modified. For example, animal abuse is an exigence because its positive modification (to stop animal abuse and show more animal care) strongly encourages utterance. The next component, the audience, would obviously refer to the crowd in the current situation that is being affected. These are the people who care or who are being influenced by the problem at hand. And lastly the constraints would be the factors that shape or limit the way the situation can be handled or corrected. 

An exigence would be the rhetorical situation in which you are trying to persuade the audience a specific direction, but are limited to the constraints placed on you that prevent your speech or argument in some way. 

These three components are the skeleton of a rhetorical situation and once they are recognized, rhetorical discourse can come forth.