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When I think of an audience the first thing that comes to mind is a gathering of people. The aim of whoever addressing the audience is to covey their message and establish some level of understanding in them on the topic of conveyance. An audience is like a crowd that is being addressed on something, maybe some of the crowd members are very interested in what is being said and maybe some aren’t. But to get the information through to the audience it need not be based solely on their interests.

I’m not the best when it comes to geography, especially when its about types of soils and the kind of crops grown in them, so in a lecture on that topic I would definitely qualify as the “not so interested” member of the audience. So, I sat down grudgingly, waiting for the class to end. I however, surprisingly, understood every part of the chapter. The lecturer matched the wavelength of the entire class and let us take breaks in between so we could absorb all the information, she would lighten the room with suitable jokes that were all within context and still managed to cover the portions required that class. I along with the majority of the class had no intent on liking or comprehending anything about soils and crops but our lecturer translated it to us in such a way that we were able to understand everything. She changed the way that she usually teaches to suit the atmosphere of the class and to reach the students minds, because she knew what her audience was like, a classroom full of young, easily bored students, forced to take geography, and she took advantage of their interests and adapted her teaching method to make the dry topics more understandable and to reach the audience (the aim of any discourse).

Anzalduas article was personal and I enjoyed reading her work. She struck certain chords that I too, being bilingual, related to on a very strong level. Anzalduas began in a dentists office and took a turn from a normal routinely root canal into an extensive report on the different types of Spanish speaking people in the united states and how they’ve adapted and been forced to adapt their language to be understood and heard. The Spanish speaking people like any cultural or ethnic group are not stagnant and have inhabited places not originally or natively their own. Naturally there ought to be barriers, language appeared to be the biggest for Anzaldua. She says that she would have to change the way she spoke her native tongue with other people of her own race to not be judged or looked down upon. To convey what she wanted to convey she would have to adjust to her “audience” which was who she was talking to. So if she wanted to be understood by a Latino/Latina or a pure speaking Spanish member what she wanted understood would not completely be interpreted by them if she spoke the way she speaks with her friends.

Similarly in writing, I think audience plays a major role in the way what is being put out on paper is understood. Depending on the characteristics of the audience, the articles will be reached in the corresponding magnitude. Newspapers and magazines for this very reason have several pages on various issues, and anyone can pick them up just to read their area of interest. There are also many publications selling books and articles about the stocks and shares and their variations, only the business and economically inclined people would be interested in reading such works, and would be the most learned to understand the jargons used there. Or the film buffs who are slightly more interested in the latest Hollywood blockbuster or superstar scandal. For them there are magazines dedicated to decoding the plots and twists of everything cinema related.

Therefore to reach the audience, interest is important but it is not the main focal point of the discussion. Anzaldua made audience seem like a small obstacle or hurdle that can be easily jumped over by adjusting ourselves, to get our point through. But in doing so we lose a bit of ourselves and a bit of what we want understood. The way we speak, the way we want to speak, what we say, what we want to be understood, are all different from one another and must be done very differently from how we imagine to be successful in our pursuit of being understood.

Bitzer says that a situation is defined by its characteristics. By this he means that the way to proceed in the existing circumstance or setting depends upon the presence of persons, events and objects there too. Similarly, the way a situation is addressed depends on these characteristics too. For a rhetorical situation to even exist though, there need not be any rhetoric speech. But for something to be said in a rhetoric way, there must be a rhetorical situation. The existence of rhetorical discourse depends on the existence of a rhetorical situation.

The necessity for rhetor to exist is a rhetorical situation, but for a rhetorical situation to exist what are the necessities?

1.Exigence: an emergency, either immediate or persisting, it is the controlling feature of the situation and is what the rhetorical situation revolves around.

2.Audience: The point of the rhetor is to bring about a change towards the exigence. By rhetor, the instilling of certain ideas in the minds of the audience is the only way for them to function as the “mediators of change”

3.Constraints: The conditions of the audience which also influence their decision making

“Rhetor is a way to alter reality”. When an emergency persists, it is not odd to say that it needs to be addressed and will be eventually. But in order for that to occur some course of action to fix it must be undertaken, this action which is intended to bring about a change in the situation or crisis should create a positive modification. But to create any positive modification, the audience must be pushed towards doing so by means of words, these words are rhetorical in sense as there exists an emergency. Thus, the utterances meant to create a change are rhetors and the change created are in a sense “altering reality”.

Bitzer familiarizes rhetor with persuasion in an indirect way. He says it’s not ordering or merely focused on convincing its audience, but more inclined to responding to a certain emergency which the situation is based on, it is concerned with influencing its audience to bring about a positive modification to fix the existing exigence.

Bitzer also addresses how there are times when a rhetorical situation can exist and a rhetorical response or utterance may go unsaid or unheard.

According to me, or what I’ve grasped from Bitzers’ elaborate explanation, is that basically in a rhetoric situation, something may or may not be said in a rhetoric sense. The existence of the rhetoric situation does not depend upon rhetoric mentioning/utterance. But rhetoric speech only exists if there is a rhetoric situation to be addressed.

If you find yourself in an emotionally distraught situation like a relatives funeral, the characteristics of the situation which could be the black attire everyone adorns, the solemn atmosphere filled with eulogies and the sweet remembrances uttered, imply that it is not a joyful event although the aim of the event is to remember the late person and ensure he may rest in peace. All these characteristics are defining features of the situation. Now that the situation exists, how do we know if its a rhetorical situation? There must be an exigence for the situation to be centered around, Great grand uncle Roys’ passing is the ‘so called’ exigence in this case, the audience is present as well, mostly consisting of family, loved ones, friends and the ceremonial priests. I feel that before discussing the constraints, the response must be addressed. Great grand uncle Roys’ son is most likely to be the orator and will be the one to address the audience, his rhetor in response to the mournful situation is only “fitting” if he speaks about the passing of his dear father, his achievements, milestones and character, a few memorable instances they shared perhaps, but if he goes on to rant about the current affairs of the world or how plastic straws kill sea turtles, he would have failed to deliver the suitable response and the aim to instill in the audiences mind a colorful and happy memory of Grand Uncle Roy would not happen. By addressing the required subject, he would achieve the change in reality, i.e, the audience would leave with a good memory of the late Roy and he may rest in peace. Thus, the rhetorical situation is addressed and the positive modification is brought about by the orators rhetor.

Connecting Bitzer to Bazzermans. Genre and Rhetorical situation are interlinked as the genre is more like a category and categories are characterized by certain recognizable features, in the same way situations are defined by the characteristics present. The genre of a book or a film could be horror, and is considered horror because it may contain aspects of fear like ghosts or spiders and a situation may be rhetoric if it contains certain requirements like an existing emergency and a n audience. So they both have certain characteristic/defining features that enable them to exist.

Genre : To me the word genre basically translates to a “type”. Most people consider the word “collection” to be to synonymous with genre. Although that sounds more professional and apt as a description for a COLLEGE LEVEL COURSE I’m going to stick with my definition of genre=type.

I’m used to being around a very diverse group of people that have very varied tastes and interests in almost every aspect of entertainment, life and so on, so whenever we have to decide on something together its always a mess. The first time I drove after I earned my Drivers license I was finally in charge of the radio, and all the passengers seated in the car had to listen to my music genre. Hmm ‘Genre’, odd way to describe the word, yes I would think so too. But sitting in a car with one person religious to rock and roll, another that resonates with R&B, someone that can sing any country song word to word and my sister that specifically only listens to classic compositions I realized that each ‘genre’ of music is so unlike the other and that each is so different and special to someone. Within each genre however every composition has some striking likeness. But what brings them all together is that they all mean something or are meant to convey some message through either their lyrics, rhythm, beat or symphonies. Similarly, when I sat and pondered on about it, it made me think about writing in the same way. Since I’ve been able to read I’ve always had a huge admiration for fiction work and fantasy and have always considered my “type of readings”. So maybe that’s why I come to think of genre as the same as a type in my odd millennial way of thinking.

Bazzermans definition of genre is more complex and is a “recognizable self reinforcing form of communication”. Recognizable because certain identifiable characteristics govern the genre. Self reinforcing because it asserts its position and reason of existence in the circumstance and it is as we all know used in speech hence “a form of communication”.

It comes into the picture of writing, because what we want to be understood by the readers may be misinterpreted and it is near impossible to gauge exactly how each person would react to the article or sentence without being face to face with them to witness their expressions or response.

He continues to explain genres as a collective of something that is identifiable by a set of certain features and is further defined by more genre specific features.