Rhetorical Situations

Reading for Reflection: Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents by Keith Grant-Davie

I read this article from Rhetoric Review in the book Writing about Writing: A College Reader. In the introduction to the reading the authors Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs make the point that "language does things" (101). It motivates and convinces and affects. Grant-Davie believes that there are four constituents to a rhetorical situation and they are exigence, rhetors, audiences, and constraints.

I was especially interested in the issue of there being multiple rhetors and audiences in certain rhetorical situations. For rhetors, Grant-Davie says they "need to consider who they are in a particular situation and be aware that their identity may vary from situation to situation." He also makes the point that rhetors can play several roles at once. The example he gives is a little league empire who is also the police chief. This isn't something I had considered, but it's more than true. In certain rhetorical situations where I am the rhetor I am both an expert and a student - I have more knowledge on certain subjects than my peers but I am still learning and that must be taken into context as well. 

Though the author doesn't look at it specifically, he brings up an issue that is prominent because of new technology in communication/writing. Instead of a speech where the rhetor knows the majority of his audience and their characteristics, when writing there is no way to really know who is reading what you, as the rhetorician, have written. Audiences can not be yet formed, can vary, and can even only exist in the rhetor's mind (109-110). To deal with the issue of not knowing precisely who the audience is, Grant-Davie mentions a suggestion from Douglas Park which is "instead of asking "Who is the audience", Park recommends we ask how discourse "defines and creates contexts for readers'" (110). I think this is a great solution to writing online, as we have no way of knowing who is going to come across what we have written on the Internet. 

The last thing that really caught my attention was whether we define a rhetorical situation as something with boundaries, as in a singular event or whether discussions and correspondence count. In my opinion, I would consider discussions and correspondence as singular rhetorical situations instead of looking at each discussion participant as one rhetoric with one rhetorical situation. 

Rhetorical situations have varying definitions and understandings, that much is clear. But what is important is to understand it as far as your own rhetorical situation as the rhetorician.