Essay On Rhetorical Situations

Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents, One-Pager
By: Gaela Jennings
I read Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents by Keith Grant-Davie. This essay talks about three types of rhetorical situations; exigence, audience, and constraints. Exigence is a way of writing things so they seem more interesting. Audience is writing things in a way so it adjusts to the reader. Constraints are obstacles that the writer must come over, they could be religion, age, attitudes and many other things. All of these things you can combine into your writing to make it better. You can also combine these things in advertisements.
Using these rhetorical situations in writing can allow the writer to “pick” or choose who reads their writing. For example,

if one writes about a little princess; it is sure to be read by someone young. And if one writes about medical procedures; it will be read by a med student or learner. The writer can also include biased thoughts or certain statements from qualified people in their writing to influence the audience. If someone writes about a fire and uses quotes and or statements from the chief firefighter, ‘they are sure to be correct’; but that is what some may just assume.
In an advertisement, there could be a problem or an exigence.

So, someone would have to make constraints to influence the audience. For example, in a cigarette commercial their might be some cool celebrities smoking. So, naturally kids and even adults would think that if they smoke, they too can be cool. Constraints aren’t always a bad thing, sometimes the writer can use them to their advantage.
Honestly, I have no idea what this essay is talking about. From what I read and from what so little I understand I wrote in this one-pager; which is not much. I looked up this essay online to try and get a better understanding, but I think I just got more confused. I have many questions about this essay. For one, many of the people that Keith talks about I don’t even know who they are or how I can trust them and their articles. Also, I don’t understand some of the examples he uses. Furthermore, I don’t know or understand what discourse is.
In conclusion, from my understanding this essay is about using rhetorical situations and how a writer can use them to their advantage. Whether it be in writing or in an advertisement the writer adjusts the way they write things to influence a certain audience. And to portray a certain kind of image that will be liked by the

reader.