"Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents"

In the article by Keith Grant-Davie entitled “Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents” he discusses what makes up rhetorical situations and he challenges you to have an improved grasp on what rhetoric actually is. Grant-Davie defines rhetorical situations as “a set of related factors whose interaction creates and controls discourse.” (105) Rhetorical situations have many building blocks to them. These building blocks are called constituents. Constituents are things that limit the range of a speaker or writer. The following are the four constituents Grant-Davie discusses. First of all there must be a exigence, which is “what the discourse is about, what it is needed, and what it should accomplish.” (pg. 106) There should also be a rhetor, which is the author of the rhetorical situation. Next there should be an audience present. “….transcended idea of a homogenous body of people.” (109) Lastly, constraints are necessary for a rhetorical situation.  In his article Grant-Davie points out it is hardest to define constraints because, “The challenge for the rhetor is to decide which parts of the context bear on the situation enough to be considered constraints, and what to do about them..”(112) A compound rhetorical situation is “made up of closely related individual situations.” (113)

            It is defiantly important for us as college students to be aware of rhetorical situations and the constraints it creates because we need to be able to look at a piece of literary work and look at it on different levels. Not only reading the substance of the piece, but really digging deep and looking at the rhetorical factors. If we understand rhetoric when can become better readers and writers.