In What Rhetoric Is you saw that every text is written for someone, for a reason. The rhetorical situation names all the pieces that shape a text, so you can see why the writer chose what they chose.
| Part | Ask | Example: a student’s letter asking for longer library hours |
|---|---|---|
| Writer | Who is writing, and what do readers know about them? | a junior who studies in the library after practice |
| Audience | Who will read it? What do they care about and already believe? | the principal, who worries about staffing costs |
| Purpose | What should change in the reader’s mind or actions? | keep the library open until 6:00 during exam weeks |
| Context | When and where? What problem calls for this text? | two weeks before finals; the library now closes at 4:00 |
| Message | What is said, and how? | a polite request, a short plan, an offer to help |
The rhetorician Lloyd Bitzer, in a 1968 essay called “The Rhetorical Situation,” said a situation starts with an exigence: a problem or need that words can help change. It also has an audience that can act, and constraints (beliefs, facts, rules) that limit what the writer can say. Richard Vatz answered in 1973 that speakers help make situations, by choosing which problems to call urgent. Scholars still discuss both views, and both are useful: ask what called for the text, and ask how the writer framed it.
Key idea
Why it works
Worked example: Lincoln at Gettysburg
- Context: the cemetery’s organizers invited Lincoln to give “a few appropriate remarks” after the main speaker.
- The main speaker, Edward Everett, a famous orator, spoke for about two hours first.
- Audience: a crowd that had already heard a long oration, and newspaper readers across the North.
- So brevity was fitting: a short, formal dedication, not a second long speech.
Answer: The invitation, the program and the tired audience all called for a short speech; Lincoln fit his words to the occasion.
Worked example: Douglass in Rochester
- Writer: Douglass, a famous speaker and editor who had escaped from slavery.
- Audience: about 500 to 600 listeners, many of them already opposed to slavery.
- Context: Independence Day, while slavery was legal in much of the country and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 required Northern help in returning people who had escaped.
- Purpose: make an audience that already agreed with him feel the full weight of celebrating liberty while slavery went on.
Answer: A friendly audience, a patriotic holiday and a harsh new law: that situation explains why Douglass could be blunt instead of cautious.
Common mistake