Whether you're trying to convince city council members to fund homeless shelters or persuade investors to back your geothermal startup, you're entering what Lloyd Bitzer called a "rhetorical situation." Understanding this concept isn't just academic exercise—it's the difference between crafting messages that create change and ones that fall flat.
Bitzer argued that all meaningful communication emerges from specific situations that demand response. Think of it like this: somewhere out there, a problem exists that words can actually help solve. Your job is to figure out the precise combination of message, audience, and timing that will make things happen.
The Heart of It: Exigence
Exigence is the urgent problem demanding attention—the thing that makes communication necessary in the first place. It's not just any problem, but one that can be modified through discourse. When you see hundreds of people sleeping rough during a polar vortex, that's exigence. When a community sits on massive geothermal potential while still burning coal for electricity, that's exigence too.
The key is recognizing that not every problem creates productive exigence. Complaining about the weather won't change it, but demonstrating how extreme weather kills vulnerable populations can mobilize resources for emergency shelters.
Your People: Audience
Your audience consists of the specific people who can actually do something about your exigence. Notice we said "can"—not "should" or "might want to." For homelessness, your audience might include city planners with budget authority, not just compassionate citizens who lack decision-making power. For energy projects, you're targeting institutional investors with capital allocation authority, not environmental activists who already agree with you but can't write checks.
This audience analysis gets tricky because effective audiences often span different groups. Your geothermal pitch might need to convince both risk-averse pension fund managers and optimistic clean-tech venture capitalists. Each group brings different priorities, languages, and concerns to the same basic decision.
What's Holding You Back: Constraints
Constraints are the forces that both limit and shape your rhetorical choices. Some constraints restrict you—like budget limitations for homeless services or regulatory hurdles for energy projects. Others empower you—like existing infrastructure, sympathetic media coverage, or recent policy changes that create opportunity.
Smart communicators work with constraints rather than against them. If voters just rejected a tax increase, maybe your homeless shelter proposal emphasizes private partnerships and cost savings instead of additional funding. If oil prices just spiked, your geothermal project suddenly looks more economically attractive to risk-averse investors.
You in the Mix: The Rhetor
As the rhetor, you bring credibility, expertise, and relationships to the situation. A formerly homeless person advocating for services carries different authority than a academic researcher—both valuable, but in different ways. An engineer with drilling experience speaks differently about geothermal potential than a recent MBA, and audiences respond accordingly.
Your identity shapes what you can say effectively and what audiences will take seriously. Sometimes this means acknowledging your limitations and building coalitions with voices that complement yours.
Making It Real: Discourse
Finally, discourse is your actual message—the speech, report, proposal, or presentation that responds to the exigence. Effective discourse feels inevitable given the situation, audience, and constraints you're working within. It doesn't feel forced or generic.
A successful homeless services proposal might combine compelling personal stories (responding to the human exigence) with detailed budget analysis (addressing fiscal constraints) while speaking the language of municipal efficiency (connecting with city manager audiences). Similarly, a geothermal investment pitch weaves together environmental urgency, regulatory advantages, and projected returns in ways that make the opportunity feel obvious rather than hopeful.
The magic happens when all five elements align. Your urgent problem meets the right audience through carefully crafted discourse that works within real constraints while leveraging your authentic voice. That's when words actually change the world.
