Edbauer

The author of this text is Jenny Edbauer. She is currently working in the English department of the University of Kentucky. The text is a scholarly journal article taken from “Rhetoric Society Quarterly” also known as “RSQ”, which is a well known official academic journal comprised of articles of rhetorical studies. It was published in the fall of 2005 by Tayler and Francis, Ltd. The primary audience of this text is other scholars, researchers, and students in the field of rhetoric in order to broaden their knowledge on new and various content. This is because she addressed the field multiple times. The text says “rhetorical situations involve the amalgamation and mixture of many different events and happenings that are not properly segmented into audience, text, or rhetorician” (Edbauer 20). She also states that “rhetorical situation is better conceptualized as a mixture of processes and encounters” (Edbauer 13). The main argument of this text is Edbauers contradiction/addition to Bitzer’s model that rhetoric is solely situational and is “the external conditions of material and social circumstances” (Edbauer 6).  Edbauer believes this definition is too simple, and adds the points of Craig Smith and Scott Lybarger who “revise Bitzer’s relatively autonomous notion of exigence by making it more interactive with other elements of the situation” (Edbauer 12), such as the people, objects and events. The text’s primary rhetorical purpose is to inform and entertain others on the fact that rhetoric is much more than one solid definition, which is what she means by “rhetoric ecology”. This includes “ the dimensions of history and movement (back) into our visions/versions of rhetoric’s public situations” (Edbauer 9), and comparing concepts that may not seem related. This is found when she compares the baboon DNA to DNA in domestic cats. Even though they aren’t related, they can still be connected in some way. The text is trying to create an open mind upon the readers to think of rhetoric on a broader scale, that can be found in all kinds of situations.