I've made my way through the majority of Bitzer's piece and I will admit I am struggling to departmentalize the different angles of rhetoric he is talking about.
According to Bitzer, every rhetorical situation is made up of three parts;
1. exigence: a defect, obstacle, something waiting to be done. In almost any sort of context, there will be numerous exigences but not all are elements of a rhetorical situation are rhetorical exigences (natural disaster, death...)
2. audience: to be constrained in decision and action
3. constraints: influence the rhetoric and can be brought to bear upon the audience
I sort of but don't really understand this article at all.
I found one part particularly interesting because of how true it is. He states, "Each reader probably can recall a specific time and place when there was opportunity to speak on some urgent matter, and after the opportunity was gone he created in private thought the speech he should have uttered earlier in the situation."
If that isn't true I don't know what is. From my own experience, no matter how much I prepared for a speech or presentation of any kind, I have left every single one feeling disappointed that I left out one of my "killer" points.
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