Rhetorical Situation

(Exigence, Audience, Constraints)

A Handout from the AP Lang 131

Your teacher has asked you to write about the “rhetorical situation” for an essay you have read or
for an essay you have to write. This handout will help you understand what is meant by
“rhetorical situation.”

What is a “Rhetorical Situation”?

A rhetorical situation arises whenever a speaker or a writer sees a need to communicate in order
to accomplish a goal.

What are examples of a rhetorical situation?

Abraham Lincoln wrote the Gettysburg Address to an audience to commemorate the founding of
a new cemetery and to establish a goal for the nation during war time.

Winston Churchill delivered speeches to the British public over the radio during World War II in
order to inspire them.

You want to text your parents to send you more money so that you can live better at college.

How do you analyze a rhetorical situation?

To analyze and understand a rhetorical situation, break it down into its parts: exigence,
audience, and constraints.
These parts—exigence, audience, and constraints—make a triangle. These factors
interact, pulling and pushing on each other in order to influence the form of a speech or a piece
of writing.

The questions below are designed to help explore each of these parts. Because all parts of a
rhetorical situation can influence the other, answers to each of the questions below should be
reconsidered in light of answers to the other questions.

What is EXIGENCE?
Exigence is the answer to questions like “So what?” “What’s the Occasion?” “Why should we
care about this subject?” “What’s the big deal?” It’s the reason why you are writing.
Metaphorically, it can even be considered “the bur under the saddle” (a disturbance that needs to
be rectified).

In other words, there is always a reason to communicate.

For example, if the local school board fires a popular principal, a sympathetic parent may then be
compelled to take the microphone at the meeting and/or write a letter to the editor in defense of
the fired principal.

You could say exigence

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---is something wrong in the world that must be responded to by action (Godzilla is attacking
your city.).
---provokes a rhetorical response to something that needs to be changed (A superhero must
speak to the monster in order to save the city.).
---is rhetorical when the writer wants to influence the audience (The hero must convince the
monster to depart.).

Lloyd Bitzer, notable expert on persuasion, defines exigence as “. . . an imperfection marked

by urgency; it is a defect, an obstacle, something waiting to be done, a thing which is
other than it should be."

How do I find the EXIGENCE?

You don’t have to answer all the following questions, but let them guide you to discover the
“exigence” (“occasion”) for the writing itself.

Why is the writing needed?

Why is now the right time for it?
What factor (e.g., an event, occasion, assignment, other discourse) has prompted it?
Why do the problems, questions, or conflicts that the discourse will address matter?
What might happen if the discourse is not delivered?
What subjects does the discourse address?
What deeper issues are represented by the subject matter? (What is it really about?)
What values are at stake?
What problems, questions, or conflicts need to be resolved?

What is AUDIENCE?
Audience would be those who have an interest in the topic and perhaps the ability to react to
the topic (do something about it). Audience would also be those who can be persuaded to
act or change (A school board that has fired a popular principal).

As Bitzer defines audience, "A rhetorical audience consists of only those persons who are
capable of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change."

How do I analyze my AUDIENCE?

Try to answer the following questions (and also see the Writing Lab’s handout on Audience):

—What range of people might read the discourse? What patterns or groupings can be found
within that range?
—What does the audience care about or value?
—Where and for what purposes might they read it? (Why would they care about your issue?)
—What constraints might affect the way they read it?
—What does the audience already know about the issue?
—What does the audience think counts as evidence for this issue? (Facts? Anecdotes? Critical
sources?)

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—How is the audience supposed to react to the discourse? (Attitude change? Action?)

Example of How Audience Affects the Writing

How would you describe an event, such as a blind date, a night on the town, a speeding ticket,
to your best friend in such a way to make that person laugh?

Now, how would you describe the same event to your mother?

The changes you make to language, to the tone and style, the events and actions you
emphasize, the information you leave out, all indicate your own awareness of audience
and how your words affect different people in different ways.

What are CONSTRAINTS?

Constraints are limitations, obstacles, or even restrictions affecting how writers craft their
writing.
For example, previous Supreme Court cases may constrain or hamper how the Court handles
later cases.
For example, someone speaking about quantum mechanics to students who have taken only
an introductory Physics class must understand the background of the audience and adjust
accordingly.
Bitzer defines constraints as, "Every rhetorical situation contains a set of constraints made up
of persons, events, objects, and relations which are part of situation because they have the
power to constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence."

How do I find the CONSTRAINTS?

Discovering the constraints under which writers write means thinking about the context of
the writing.
—“Context” may include the background to the situation defined in terms of geography,
history, culture, morality, religion, politics, economics, intellectual/professional discourse
community, forum or place of publication, etc. Context may also be local, national, global.
—“Context” includes “factors” that may help influence the audience for or against the writer’s
case.
—“Factors” can include events (both natural and caused by humanity), people (besides the
audience), traditions, prevailing attitudes, laws, other discourses, etc.
For example, some speakers at the 2008 Republican National Convention found
themselves constrained by Hurricane Ike, which made landfall during the
convention and led them to change their speaking plans. The hurricane became
part of their rhetorical situation.
—Writers also look for whether or not the situation restricts the form of the writing.
— Writers also look for any limitations on text length, structure, appearance, style, etc.

After discovering the constraints, writers ask themselves, “How can I address each of these,
perhaps harnessing the positive effects or minimizing the negative effects?”

How do I pull all of this together to analyze a “rhetorical situation”?

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Let’s take an example:
Living at college is more expensive than you had planned; you need more money. You decide
to contact your parents so they can send you more funds.
Exigence: need more funds, right away, to live and to buy books, especially to get to the end
of the month
Audience: parents
As the writer, you should consider
—their views about money and responsible spending
—their image of college life. Do they understand it as you do? Do they realize how much
more expensive it is since they were in school?
—their motives for sending you to college in the first place (learn to adjust and live on your
own)
—their attitude about paying for college and being in debt in order to support you at college
Constraints:
—level of language you can write in (formal? Informal? slang?)
—method for sending request for funds: E-mail? Letter? Call? Text? Even a telegram?
—the number of times you may have already asked for funds from your parents
— parents may not have money to spare
—parents may believe students need to learn how to handle money and to stand on they own
—parents may feel the student has had enough money for the month
—parents may be thinking ahead to the holidays, when they themselves will need extra funds
because expenses for them could be higher than ususal

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 The Rhetorical Situation

Language User (Writer/ Speaker/ Artist)

Voice
Motivation
Intention
Beliefs
Values
Experiences

TEXT

TEXT

Purpose Audience
To inform “ R “Real”
To describe Imagined
To persuade Implied
To explain Invoked
To activate
To entertain
To forge connection
To highlight differences

Imagine the triangle above as enmeshed in its CONTEXT. That context is:
 social
 historical
 political
 ideological
 cultural
 geographical, etc.

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