Rhetorical Situation

The rhetorical situation is the context of a rhetorical event that consists of an issue, an audience, and a set of constraints. Three leading views of the rhetorical situation exist today. One argues that a situation determines and brings about rhetoric, another proposes that rhetoric creates “situations” by making issues salient, and yet another explores the rhetor as an artist of rhetoric, creating salience through a knowledge of commonplaces.

Lloyd Bitzer began the conversation in his 1968 piece titled “The Rhetorical Situation.” Bitzer wrote that rhetorical discourse is called into existence by situation. He defined the 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.” With any rhetorical discourse, a prior rhetorical situation exists. The rhetorical situation dictates the significant physical and verbal responses as well as the sorts of observations to be made. An example of this would be a President focusing on health care policy reform because it is an apparent problem. The situation, thus, calls for the President to respond with rhetorical discourse concerning this issue. In other words, rhetorical meaning is brought about by events.

Although many situations may exist, not all situations can be defined as rhetorical situations, because speech cannot rectify the problem. Bitzer especially focuses on the sense of timing (kairos) needed to speak about a situation in a way that can best remedy the exigence.

Three constituent parts make up any rhetorical situation.

An important response to Bitzer's theory came in 1973 from Richard E. Vatz. Vatz believes that rhetoric defines a situation. Because the context of events and choices of events could be forever described, persuaders must select which events to make part of the agenda. With one choosing certain events and not others and deciding their relative value or importance, this creates a certain presence, or salience. Vatz quotes Chaim Perelman: “By the very fact of selecting certain elements and presenting them to the audience, their importance and pertinency to the discussion are implied. Indeed such a choice endows these elements with a presence…”

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