Journal 2

Two Examples:

1. When you’re at a restaurant, and the waiter suggest to you, would you like to try our new fish and shrimp entree today?

2. After buying groceries at your local market and the cashier ask would you like to donate $1 for the Feeding the Children Program?

          I believe that Bitzer would agree on the persuasive action that takes place with these rhetorical questions. In the readings, Bitzer explains that he only wants to know the nature of the context in which writers or speakers create rhetorical discourse. I believe Bitzers definition of Rhetoric deals with persuasion and wants to convince his audience to do what he's asking, or whats to come of the situation. It is the natural context of events, persons, objects or relations and they all encourage strong utterances and exigence. In short, Bitzers theories lean more towards rhetorical publicity. Rhetorical situations can happen any and every where. I feel that what differs between Bitzer and Edbauer is the terminology of Rhetoric. They both approach the situation with their own ideas of rhetoric and how it can be applied to everyday life.

          Rather than Edbauer see rhetoric as the discrete of elements he critiques his idea of rhetoric as elemental conglomerations. With this term he moves more towards Phelps idea of a rhetorical situation. Edbauer believes that Rhetorical ecology begins with viral economy. He then goes on to say that rhetoric is not contained by its elements such as audience, constraints, or exigence; instead he refers to it as a circulation in the social field. I feel that Rhetoric ecology's gives us, as a people room to think about the ways in which rhetoric circulates and adapts beyond certain situations. In other words rhetoric ecologies suggest new ways to think about the idea of the rhetoric. Rhetoric will continue to evolve in two parallel ways; what is shared between the two isn't the situation but the energy. I feel that Bitzers representation of Rhetoric is more accurate to my beliefs because it’s really just the nature of the situation that Bitzers wants to understand. Rhetoric can be classified as many things, not just one.