Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Rhetorical Situation--Wednesday's Class Discussion
Grant-Davie offers us a complex nuanced discussion of rhetorical situations, building off of other scholars' definitions in an attempt "to offer a more thoroughly developed scheme for analyzing rhetorical situations" (104). And while I don't expect you to be able to understand and use every word of his article (no one could anyway), I do want you to be able to take something useful from his ideas. So, I'd like us to try to develop a good working definition of "rhetorical situation" that's written in our own language that we can continue to use as a class as the semester progresses. The trick is not to oversimplify the ideas, but to try to capture the complexity in a way that means we get this idea and we can apply it to our own daily lives. It might help to begin by thinking about what the key elements of a rhetorical situation are. Then, see if you can provide a beginning definition of "rhetorical situations" by explaining how those elements interact. [Note: There is no correct response to this task, and I'm hoping that reading your peers' responses will help you refine your ideas. Don't be afraid to start with one of your peers' ideas and revise/refine it. It would be really cool if we could see a class definition develop as the discussion progresses:).] [Due: end of day on Wednesday]
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Okay rhetorical situation kind of confuses me but here is what I THINK it means or consists of:
ReplyDeleteRhetorical situation is saying something without flatout saying it. Rhetorical situation consists of discourse which is communication that should get someone to do something, discourse is the solution to exigence ( the problem). Exigence can be manipulated/modified by the audience (people you are trying to pursuade), rhetors (the people pursuading), and constraints(constraints should not be confused with exigence because constraints limit the response TO exigence).
Okay can someone please tell me if that makes sense? Lol, or please clarify my thoughts. I am still sorta confused on what it means.
I think Zoe's definition is a lot like how I would define it.
ReplyDeleteRhetorical situation is a problem where someone tries to hint at a solution. They are not saying exactly what they want but hinting at it enough that the other person can get the idea of what they are implying.
At least that's how I understood it.
My understanding of what a rhetorical situation is basically a situation in which you need or have a problem with. There are different ways to explain the types of situations you may be describing. It's giving a suggestion someone doesn't just flat out say what they want. They give clue's as to what they want, for example, if someone were to say they hadn't eaten since the morning they are advising the other person that they are hungry.This is how i see what a rhetorical situation is.
ReplyDeleteThis is what I understand so far – it’s a bit complicated :) - Rhetorical situation is an event that is created by rhetor(s) that is implying (by a mean of communications-discourse) to others to act a certain way or do something in particular. Once the rhetors know the exigence (problem / need) of the situation they can try to communicate with their audience (always keeping them in mind in order to properly transmit the desired message). Constraints also form part of the rhetorical situations, they in different ways imply what a person wants to say but in a more kind/polite way.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Zoe and Alex because Rhetorical situation are situations in which writers write in a way to tell the reader to lean to a certain solution. even though the writer won't give the reader the full idea of the reading up front.
ReplyDeleteGood for you guys for being brave enough to get in there and try to work through a complicated concept. Does anyone remember the more simple definitions that you might have come across in your 1301 class? I believe Grant-Davie mentions Bitzer's "general" definition at the beginning of the article. Does that help you find a starting place? What do you find to be the most confusing parts of Grant-Davie's article to work through? (Downs and Wardle tell teachers that this article is the one their students struggled the most with, but valued the most at the end of the semester, so you're not alone in your struggle to make it mean something in your own language.)
ReplyDeleteI'd also have to agree with Alex and Zoe. For rhetorical situations writers find a way to tell the reader the solution in an indirect way. You won't be given the full idea, like Enique states, but it's there.
ReplyDeleteI agree Dr. J, Grant-Davie's mentions of Bitzer's "general definition does help us get started as to what "rhetorical situations" are. I found that the most confusing parts of the article were when it talks about constraints. It says at the beginning that it is most difficult to define them due to the fact that they include so many different things. (Wardle pg. 111)
I agree with Enrique because the writer is not going to give you all the details about the situation. What I understand from rhetorical situation is it is a situation where their is a problem and the reader has to find everything they can so they can solve it. Although. The writer can give you hints but won't tell you directly what it is like for example a challenge in other words.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous comments. With rhetorical questions you're given the answer but in between the lines, at some moment the writer might even manage to do it without the reader ever realizing. Leading the reader to believe that they come to that conclusion all on their own. (Sounds incredibly sneaky. Lol.)
ReplyDeleteI agree with Karen that Blitzer's definition does give us the main base on what rhetorical situations are. The rhetors were the most confusing part of the article to me. There is a different view of them argued between Vatz, Blitzre's, and Consigny. Blitzer's argues that "the rhetors response is controlled by the situation." Vatz argues that rhetors "not only answer the question, they also ask it." Consigny argues that both Blitzer and Vatz are wrong on rhetors, yet he agrees on certain things in their arguments. It is confusing to me, though I find it that Vatz's argument seem to make more sense to me. (pg. 105)
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ReplyDeleteI'm glad there isn't just one correct answer, because all of my peers responses seem correct and help me understand what it means.
ReplyDeleteThe way that i understand what a rhetoric situation is when Grant-Davie gave the following example of when a friend says, "Boy, i'm really cold" (pg. 101).
The friend isn't telling you directly that he wants you to higher the air, but it's hidden between his/her statement. His/her communication is considered as rhetorical, persuasive communication, to get you to do something that he/she wants. Once the audience (the other person) gets the message, it's kind of one of those statements like why didnt you just ask or tell me to do it.
Rhetorical situations are tricky. The reader is responsible for understanding the authors message yet open for leaving the reader with more questions, comments or ideas. The reader is left with deciphering the external information that is stated, process it internally and building on the reading through this method.
ReplyDeleteI kind of think of a rhetorical situation as a very abstract concept, as in not something that can be directly observed or analyzed. Rather, you look at the environment or setting, and draw from occurrences in that scene to make out what the 'thing' is. I hate having to use such a vague term as 'thing', but that is really what it is. It isn't bound to solely being a problem or situation or state of being, although many times there is what you could say a 'solution'. In a way, I kind of see a rhetorical situation as a black hole, or perhaps the wind. You can't directly see it, but you know it is there because of external factors(residual light particles from nearby stars/movement of leaves in the trees.
ReplyDeleteAnd from reading the responses of others, I'd say we're all at least in the same ball park. I find it's difficult to accurately identify abstract ideas, much less in a completely coherent manner, and much less as a collective, but I think bouncing ideas off each other and taking what we've read from the text has our definition of a rhetorical situation within a manageable state.
ReplyDeleteA rhetorical situation is communication or language that motivates or persuades someone to do something.
ReplyDeleteYes, Grant-Davie’s general definition sure did help to start looking into what “rhetorical situations” meant, but still not an easy thing to figure out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Karen where she said that the most confusing parts of the article were those related to “constraints”. Page 112 says “I would define constraints, then, as all factors in the situation, aside from the rhetor and the audience, that may lead the audience to be either more or less sympathetic to the discourse, and that may therefore influence the rhetor’s response to the situation – still a loose definition, but constraints defy anything tighter.”
Rhetorical situation to me is a problem or need that can be adressed by communication. Basically saying that we dont want to be rude or direct on what we need but directing it in a different way by saying we are cold or could we borrow a sweater instead of asking to lower the air condition. Please let me know if I make sense?
ReplyDeleteA rhetorical situation is basically passive aggression. It's hinting at something without actually saying it.
ReplyDeleteI loved what Naya said "Rhetorical situations are tricky. The reader is responsible for understanding the authors message yet open for leaving the reader with more questions, comments or ideas."