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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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Grant-Davie describes thoroughly the term rhetorical situation and how the development of the definition and its constituents has contributed to the discovery of the motives and responses behind any discourse. The analysis of rhetorical situations could determine the outer or inner influences of the rhetors, the audience, and their particular constraints. Grant Davie supports his claims by using the earlier definitions of scholars and teachers as his foundation. He also addresses his own analysis drawn by life experienced discourses which it also helps the reader understand the causes of rhetorical situations. This is important because it teaches any writer or reader to analyze a situation and think about the options and paths it could lead

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And more importantly for him, the situation is the fundamental element of rhetorical activity. Bitzer defines Rhetorical situation as, “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.” In describing “Rhetorical Situation” Bitzer also mentions 3 constituents of it: First of all, the exigence—an “imperfection” or a “defect,” which is also the need of having something to be done. There is a variety of exigencies. An exigence will be classified as rhetorical only when it allows positive modification and the positive modification is based on discourse.

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My definition of rhetoric before the readings was simply: successful written or oral communication with a clear purpose & audience in mind. After completing the readings, I have decided that is not specific enough and does not encompass what rhetoric really is. The readings by Crusus, Channell, and Drucker helped establish a clear relationship between argument, “mature reasoning”, and communication as a mode used to communicate. Both of the readings provided a clearer understanding of argument and communication, key components to rhetoric, but did not change my definition until I read “The Rhetorical Situation” by Bitzer. The idea of a rhetorical situation, provided a clear application of the question: “What is rhetoric?”

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The exigence is an obstacle waiting to be done and is the only thing can be modified. Second, you have the audience. The rhetorical audience consists of only the persons who can be influenced by the exchange or discourse.

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Grant-Davie opens his writing with numerous definitions of a rhetorical situation. He then says that these definitions do not grasp the complexity of rhetorical situations. To fully understand a rhetorical situation, he suggests an analysis of the exigence, recognizing that rhetors and audience are both a part of a rhetorical situation, and that there may be multiple rhetors or audience. Grant-Davie then stated the four constituents in rhetorical situations that are exigence, rhetors, audiences, and constraints.

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