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Bitzer's Rhetorical Analysis

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Rhetoric in Bitzer’s sense is a “mode of altering reality, not by direct application of energy to objects, but by the creation of discourse which changes reality through the mediation of thought and action”. Bitzer explains that rhetoric is situational for five reasons: “[1] rhetorical discourse comes into existence as a response to a situation…[2] a speech is given rhetorical significance by the situation…[3] Rhetorical situation must exist as a necessary condition of rhetorical discourse…[4] many rhetorical situations mature and decay without giving birth to rhetorical utterance…and [5] Situation is rhetorical insofar as it needs and invites discourse capable of participating with the situation and thereby altering its reality…”. The main …show more content…

As rhetoric was once hyper-focused on the art of persuasion as well as oratory and philosophy on matters of human existence, this shift in human inquiry has collapsed the border between the two practices – into what is now known as contemporary rhetorical theory (and crosses into postmodern rhetorical theory). “The convictions and orientations that have traditionally marked the separation of rhetoric and philosophy—the concern with truth and the focus on persuasion—have begun to converge on a new space that can be defined through the central term discourse” (Angus & Langsdorf, 1993). Contemporary rhetoric emerged as a theoretical landscape in which to analyze the communicative act in the civic …show more content…

A phenomenological approach that is system-based and communication-centered, in particular, may serve to illuminate the relationship between structure and agency. One assumption of this analysis is that system change occurs through the actions of individual actors. It is when individuals have the motivation and capacity for action that they speak out, enact policy changes, and participate in change-oriented collectivities. Change at the system level, in turn, can facilitate individual awareness and relationship building (DeTurk, 2006, p.

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