Mac Curran
Jill Yoder
Writ 101
7 September 2014
Thought Piece #5
Looking at the reflection of the article by Lloyd Bitzer and the responses by Richard Vatz and Scott Consigny we see several different points of view on the topic of rhetorical situation. Bitzer defines a rhetorical situation as “the context in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse.” He also states that it is “a complex of persons, events, objects and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence.” Vatz challenges Bitzer stating that the response is controlled by the situation and that situations do not exist without rhetors. And finally we see Consigny being in the middle, stating that both are right and wrong and has different view points on each characteristic of rhetorical situations.
Reading farther into chapter three I touched back on the three view points and while Consigny is in the middle I strongly agree with Vatz and his view points on rhetorical situation. I have found that rhetorical response is controlled by the situation but does not exist without rhetors which are people which generate rhetoric. Vatz continues to go on about rhetors about how they create rhetorical situations as opposed to discovering them. As he describes it the rhetors not only answer the question but they ask it. Therefor creating material and sometimes developing exigence.
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