In The Rhetorical Situation, Lloyd Bitzer provides three elements of a

rhetorical situation: exigence, audience, and constraints. Specifically, Bitzer argues

that rhetorical situations invite utterance or discourse. As the author himself puts it,
Rhetorical situation may be defined 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.
While many theorists have focused on rhetorical discourse, Bitzer insists that it is
the situation, which calls the discourse into existence. In sum, then, his view is that
rhetorical utterance is brought forth by situation.
I have mixed feelings. In my view, the argument that Bitzer makes can be
valid for certain situations. For instance, the presence of rhetorical discourse
dictates the display of rhetoric. In addition, a work may be rhetorical because it
responds to a specific situation. Some might object, of course, on the grounds that
some situations can be rhetorical. Yet, I would argue that it depends on the situation
and the discourse. In general, then, I believe that rhetoric is situational and
situations are rhetorical and that they go hand in hand.