The Rhetorical Situation: Speech

The fourth element in the rhetorical situation is the speech itself. A speech that is a fitting response to the rhetorical situation helps to eliminate the exigence by having good and logical ideas. It is coherent in its reasoning and draws on audience values as well as facts and evidence in making its arguments. The language used in the speech and the arrangement of the formal parts of the speech add to a fitting response—or sometimes they detract. Most of the instruction throughout Dr. Zarefsky's book is aimed at helping you prepare a speech that is a fitting response to the rhetorical situation in which you will be speaking. You can also use his ideas, when you listen as a citizen-critic, to help you judge a speech and reach decisions in public life. And, as a rhetorical critic, you can judge a speech as a fitting response to its rhetorical situation. 

These four elements—audience, occasion, speaker, and speech—make up the rhetorical situation. After analyzing these elements and considering how they imposed constraints or provided resources, you should be able to make an informed and critical assessment of a speech's quality. Critical listening, then, goes beyond simply liking a speech or even forming an assessment of the quality of ideas in it: critical listening includes an understanding of the whole rhetorical situation and using that understanding to assess a speech.