Message “parasitically invades” students

Bitzer's view of rhetorical situations also made me think about the way that advertisers convince you that you need something. They tell you that you need, say, the Ipod with the TV screen or the Thighmaster to be happy. Bitzer is like the guy who sees an ad for a Blackberry and is convinced that he can't live without it – he's certain there was a set of circumstances in his life that necessitated its purchase. Vatz is like the guy who realizes the power of advertising – that such needs are “created” and not “found.” They convince you that there was a rhetorical situation there already, when in fact they created it.

I use the concept of the rhetorical situation to respond to students who don't like my standards for grading. I teach personal writing, which many students perceive as “what I think” and “what I feel.” For example, a student told me last week that topic sentences are too constraining on her writing. I try to get them to see that personal writing is a rhetorical situation like any other where one must take into account audience and constraints, etc. Reflecting now on this practice, I realize it's more Bitzerian than Vatzian because I tell them that in the “real world,” you will always need to write for a certain audience under certain conditions. This always seems deeply unfair to them.

I too wondered why Jenny Edbauer called Vatz “infamous.”