Four Elements Of Rhetorical Discourse

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Every day humans encounter rhetorical situations, yet hardly ever is a heated conversation or debate though of this way. Rhetoric, which is the art of conversation has been used for thousands of years across the world. Rhetorical situations constitute of four elements, the exigence, rhetor, audience, and constraints. All of these are equally the most important elements, because without each other the conversation would make no sense. The action or statement that sparks a discourse, or the exigence is one of the four constituents of a rhetorical analysis. The exigence is usually an event or topic that comes up to start an argument. These may be things such as a bombing, this may possibly create a discussion about the war on terrorism. A politician …show more content…

The audience is anyone who is listening to the discourse or who a writer seems to have in mind (Rhetorical situations and their constituents). This may affect what you say or how you say it. If you are having a discourse with your buddies you may be loud and use vulgar language; however, if you are in a room with professionals you will speak in a polite manner and with a professional tone. Constraints are another complicated aspect of a discourse just as the exigence. Constraints are “limitations on the rhetor” these can be either positive or negative (Rhetorical situations and their constituents). The author can use constraints to gain the upper hand in an argument though sympathy. Such as if I wanted to get a car and my mom said no, I could say “buuuuut mom I have been doing all my chores and haven’t asked for anything recently”. Although this would most likely not work it may sway her opinion. If you choose to bring up constraints that benefit you have a good chance at winning an argument. All four elements of a rhetorical situation are equally as important as each other, although some are more complicated. Without just one of these constituents the discourse would make little to no sense or would completely not happen at all. Rhetorical discourses are a great opportunity to hear others opinions on controversial topics as well as speak your own

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