...1. a) Rhetorical Situation: Rhetorical Situation is a framework that serves as a useful way to analyze public discourse. Speaker first set a relevant context to an issue or problem the audience is facing and then come up with solutions. Lloyd Bitzer defined the rhetorical situation as, “A complex of persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant modification of the exigence.” For example, a serious oil spill happened in the U.S. The Rhetorical situation is thus created because the oil spill caused damage to the environment. The environmental...
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...Journal #3 A rhetorical situation has four constituents that are valuable to a discussion. Of these are the rhetors, exigence, audience, and constraints. The two most important elements of a rhetorical situation are the rhetors and the constraints. Without these there wouldn't be a conversation. In order for a conversation to take place, there needs to be exigence. Rhetorical exigence is defined as “the rhetor’s sense that a situation both calls for a discourse and might be resolved by discourse” (Grant-Davie 206). The exigence is what sparks the discussion on a topic. Something must have occurred to motivate a conversation that may resolve or start a debate. Exigence is tied together with the discourse, “what the discourse is about becomes…a...
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...Stephen King, titled, “Why We Crave Horror Movies.” This paper will examine the rhetorical situation of the article and attempt to break it down into its 3 main parts, the topic, the author, and the audience. The topic of the paper is fairly simple, as titled Mr. King wanted to explore why it is that people crave the Horror genre of movies. As most horror movies examine things that are frightening or gruesome, I feel that this was a fair question. To answer this question Mr. King approaches the paper from an interesting angle. At the very beginning he states, “I think that we’re all mentally ill: those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better— and maybe not all that much better, after all.” (Johnson, 641) He immediately claims we are all insane, but then goes on and explains that insanity stretches from picking ones nose to carving up bodies. (Johnson, 641) When he wrote this article, Mr. King, was still at the beginning of his writing career. The article was written for and published in Playboy in the early 80s. (Johnson, 641) The article was intended for presumably men, as it was published in a Men’s magazine. As an early horror writer it seems that Mr. King was writing this to appeal to a new audience. By validating the need to see horror movies, it may also appeal to the desire to read horror novels. Lastly we address how the audience is affected in the rhetorical situation. This article was written towards the readers of Playboy as it was still a slightly...
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...class. Contributors:Ethan Sproat, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Allen Brizee Last Edited: 2012-04-27 10:46:02 Example 1: “I Have a Dream” Speech A lot of what was covered above may still seem abstract and complicated. To illustrate how diverse kinds of texts have their own rhetorical situations, consider the following examples. First, consider Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Because this speech is famous, it should be very easy to identify the basic elements of its particular rhetorical situation. Text The text in question is a 17-minute speech written and delivered by Dr. King. The basic medium of the text was an oral speech that was broadcast by both loudspeakers at the event and over radio and television. Dr. King drew on years of training as a minister and public speaker to deliver the speech. He also drew on his extensive education and the tumultuous history of racial prejudices and civil rights in the US. Audiences at the time either heard his speech in person or over radio or television broadcasts. Part of the speech near the end was improvised around the repeated phrase “I have a dream.” Author http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/625/08/ Page 1 of 9 Purdue OWL: The Rhetorical Situation 9/11/13 7:53 PM Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most iconic leader of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He was an African-American Baptist minister and prominent civil rights activist who campaigned to end segregation and racial discrimi-...
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...As previously established, the rhetorical situation is far more than just context and includes a number of detailed aspects. As a main frame, there are three main aspects, the audience, the exigence and the constraints. These can be determined by the information that the article presents. Particularly in the article regarding the potential Nicaraguan Canal, there is a wealth of knowledge that is shared, with the two main focal points that were stated above. These are the environmental risks and the feasibility of even being able to build such a colossal canal. Knowing about the overview of the situation helps push forward the understanding of how Bitzer’s rhetorical situation relates. The first piece of the situation is the exigence or simply put, the problem. It has already been determined that the problem at hand is the potential development of a Canal because of it’s environmental risks and its need/feasibility. These things create the issue at hand and are the reason for concern among various groups. It is known that at this point these risks are only potential and that discussing such a matter is preemptive to any ground breaking, in order for all things to be considered before such a monumental development takes place. The next step to close in on Bitzer’s situation is to address the audience. It must be determined who the audience is by a number of details. First and foremost, who cares? In the situation there is a problem (exigence) that is causing some...
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...The four main components to the rhetorical situation are the writer, the reader, the text, and the medium. The first rhetorical situation I will analyze is the writer, and to mainly focus on what exactly I am trying to get across for the readers. The first thing when I am going through the steps of a writer is to start from the top, I feel as if some people jump around but I like to go in order I feel like as if it gives me a sense of direction when coming up with a reason to write my paper. Going into the second step of the writer is trying to find out what my goal is and that basically means what do I want my final outcome to look like and will it affect anything else? And to wrap up the next two parts of the guide since they kind of blend in together, is that I always want my readers to know the reason behind my own writing, I don’t want to leave them on a cliff, I always explain to them why I am writing this essay or prompt....
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...Initially, a rhetorical situation is where the writer or the speaker is trying to persuade the audience on a certain topic. Lloyd Bitzer explains the rhetorical situation in great detail, in his article “The Rhetorical Situation.” He broke it down into three parts: the exigence, the audience, and the constraints. The exigence is the reason or situation that needs to be taken care of. The audience is the people to whom the writer or the speaker is trying to persuade. The constraints are the obstacles that have the power to help or hinder in the process of change or persuasion. For example, a physician is informing a patient of his high cholesterol and the effects it can have on his health (exigence). The physician advises the patient (audience)...
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...As stated in Bizter The Rhetorical Situation essay the Audience “consists only of those persons who are cap- able of being influenced by discourse and of being mediators of change.” The audience that Malcolm X is addressing in his speech are black people, because he specifically called on them to make changes. “Mr. Moderator, Reverend Cleage, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, and friends and I see some enemies.” Despite acknowledging that some 'enemies' were present, the 'enemies' he referred to are white people, he only did so to let them know that he is aware that they are listening, and as a way to invoke fear in them. Nonetheless, by Bizter definition the audience in this situation blacks are the mediators of change. As previously mentioned blacks didn't have full rights and often dealt with discrimination, thus being easy to...
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...According to Keith Grant-Davie, a rhetorical situation is “a situation where a speaker or writer sees a need to change reality and sees that the change may be effected through rhetorical discourse” (Grant-Davie 350). In other words, a rhetorical situation mainly consists of an exigence, or a reason to communicate, a rhetor(s), which is another word or a writer, an audience, and constraints that may strengthen or hinder the exigence. In Grant-Davie’s article, he focuses on analyzing works from the point of view of the reader; however, it is important to know that we can also apply his reasonings from the perspective of the writer. As a writer, it is useful to understand the rhetorical situation you’re writing for. A great example is the in-class lecture on January 17 (Polk). We were assigned a task in which we had to write a persuasive letter to many different people and watch as the same material for the letter changed in regard to who we were writing it for. This is important for writers because it helps them shape their writings into a more appropriate piece of work. A well-known businessman wouldn’t want to write an email to a boss in the same matter as he would if it were to a close friend. Likewise, a boss...
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...exchanges? Len’s tone is a little condescending, threatening, and hostile up to the point of criticizing Marilyn and her work. Marilyn’s tone was continuously defensive; her every word and actions. As a lady, I think she feels intimidated maybe because she is a lady. She feels like she was being put down in the first exchange while in the second, she was more solemn. • Were Marilyn's objectives on the way to being effectuated in the first exchange? Len was doing everything he could including using the blocking tactic, so I do not think Marilyn’s objective was on the way to being effectuated in the first exchange. She was being bullied and Len was also trying to intimidate her as a woman. She was continuously put in a defensive situation while at the same time countering every frame that Len used. She had to explain why she could perform better and had to get him back to the reason of the conversation. Personally, I feel that she had no opportunity to use any of her strategy and tactics even if she had any because Len gave her no chance to complete her sentences and negotiate her points. • Were Len's objectives on the way to being effectuated in the first exchange? I do not think that Len’s objectives were on the way to being effectuated in the first exchange either because I think...
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...Can you find the thesis statement? 1. I have chosen to compare two TV-series who in fact, are a lot like each other. They are both sitcoms and revolve around a group of friends, living their lives and having fun with it. I have chosen “How I Met Your Mother” and “Friends”. In both of these series, there is a main character, whether the main character is more important than the rest is only to discussion. These two series are similar in many ways, because they both use the same episode-structure. However, there is one little difference. The group of friends in “How I Met Your Mother” are five whereas the group in “Friends” are six. Either way, these two TV-series contain many similarities except for a quite significant difference in a central cinematic technique. 2. The two popular sitcoms “How I met your mother” (2005) and “Friends” (1994) contain several similarities. They are both built up on a group of friends who have very unique individual personalities. We follow their everyday life in New York; mainly staying at the local bar/coffee shop or in an apartment, which some of the characters lives in. But then again they are not completely similar. “How I met your mother” is, as the title reveals, about how the main character met his wife, which he tells his kids in the year 2030. Then the sitcom takes us through his life in the year 2005 among his friends, trying to find his future wife. “Friends” is on the other hand about 6 friends relationship to each other and...
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...In the early days of television, the role of a misfit was one of comedic effect, an excellent example is one of the first and certainly one of the most popular comedy shows of its era; The Three Stooges. In The Three Stooges, almost every gag is either violent slapstick, a farcical joke, or demeaning jokes centred around the main cast's stupidity. As one approaches contemporary times, the role of a misfit changes significantly, over the decades, society becomes more tolerant of difference and more accepting toward individuality, imposing fewer expectations on youth to replicate their parent's lives, this was around the time of programs such as Freaks and Geeks. Eventually, television and society start celebrating differences, seen in modern television in many programs, especially seen in series such as Son of Zorn. The changes in television are deeply linked to changes in society, each affecting the other. In the early 1900's (~1930) Columbia Pictures new 'short film' series The Three Stooges took the world by storm; the trio of actors turned a comedy act into numerous sketch-type short films each year. Many years later the 1950s; the sequence of films were broadcast to the world; this was during the time of a rapid increase in population growth (2) and thus and much larger 'mass culture' which allowed for a significant increase in cultural diversity in given populations (3). Combined with this was the rapid increase in the number of homes that had a television to a reported...
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...CWV-101 December 9, 2012 Thomas Joseph The Connors: The Real American Family I chose to watch and observe a situation comedy that I liked watching as a teenager called Roseanne. Roseanne was a show that never shied away from real issues that families would endure and overcome. This show had nine seasons and always stayed current with the events that were going on in the world. The show portrayed a broad array of worldviews and how people in general would live together under different, sometimes opposing, outlooks on the world. Although the show never delved too deep into exact religious beliefs, there was an undertone of a Christian worldview. ("Roseanne full episodes," 2012) Roseanne Conner was the mother of three children, Becky, Darlene, and D.J, and doting wife of Dan Conner. Roseanne was raised in a Jewish family and Dan was raised Pentecostal. They raised their children to be able to choose their own path while instilling in them a sense of belief in something greater than themselves. She worked in various low income jobs while maintaining the home for her family. The middle-class view of this family is what appealed to most of America. You had a more realistic look at what we as the working class go through on a daily basis. There were no issues too taboo and the show gave great instruction on dealing with hard pressed problems. This was one of the first shows that showed the different faces of the family. You had black, Jewish, gay, and all other...
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...Week 4 Assignment What are the objectives of both parties in the exchanges? Both parties in these exchanges want to obtain the best accounts available for their teams to maximize profit for the company, and also for their staff. They both want to get their points across while looking out for their teams’ best interest. Based on the exchange, it seems that Marilyn prefers sharing the accounts rather than being left with the small ones, while Len would like to work on accounts that will generate more money. How would you describe the general "tone" of the exchanges? The tone of the exchanges seems to be slightly aggressive between Marilyn and Len. In the first exchange, it almost seems like Len’s tone is a little threatening and Marilyn’s tone is defensive in response to this. She also seems to be worried that she’ll be stuck with the smaller, less productive accounts that Len is trying to push on her. Were Marilyn's objectives on the way to being effectuated in the first exchange? No, I feel that Marilyn started off well but then allowed Len’s aggression to get the best of her. She became more defensive while countering each of Len’s comments, which caused her to lose sight of the points she had to present in this negotiation. If this would have continued in this manner, Marilyn will not get her point across. Len had her backed into a corner, and Marilyn’s defensiveness was ineffective, since it wasn’t able to turn the negotiation in her favor. Were Len's...
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...Dynamics of Relational Humor in Sitcoms Situational Comedy is one of the most dominating show genres on broadcast television today. Situational comedies are also referred to as sitcoms. These shows endear audiences with relatable circumstances that are exaggerated for humorous purposes. Humor being one of the main focuses of sitcoms, they often times depict a main character’s experiences in life. The audience experiences the trials and tribulations of life with the character, which is partly what causes a regular watcher to develop a “parasocial” relationship with them (“Research Report,” 2013). Upon examination of the development of the television sitcom, many of the humorous moments throughout the years have stemmed from embellished situations in character-to-character relationships. An analysis of these relationships, with emphasis on those of an intimate relationship has shown that today sexuality is often the source of primary humor. This sexuality in sitcoms is currently the most repetitive type of humor and is considered the standard, but such was not always the case. Early sitcoms focused on more traditional problems of marriage, of family affairs, and other every day social inter-relationship problems, and even had a different method of presentation, but throughout time they evolved to depend on the provocative behavior of the characters. The sexual problems they experience took the role of their every day problems; vulgar topics such as this became the cultural norm...
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