blog 9

Lloyd Bitzer writes in "The Rhetorical Situation" that a rhetorical situation "is A complex of persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence." He states that there are three essential parts to a rhetorical situation "exigence, audience, and constraints."  Bitzer describes the constraints of the rhetorical situation as "people or persons, events, objects, and relations which are parts of the situation." This is because they have the power to create and or change the exigence. The exigencies are any imperfection that is marked by urgency. It is made rhetorical when it is capable of a positive change, and this change comes at a sense of discourse. He uses pollution as an example because it could be improved by creating less pollution. We could improve this through discourse by vocalizing the issues and spreading information about pollution to the public in hopes that they take it upon themselves to help. The final piece is the Audience, and they audience can be made rhetorical if they're influenced or changed by the situation. One example could be watching your friends do drugs and wonder why their parents aren't more involved with their lives. If then, you took it upon yourself to pay more attention to your kids, they may not ever do drugs.