Causation and creativity in rhetorical situations: Distinctions and implications

This essay argues that Bitzer's situational theory provides non‐deterministic causal explanations of rhetoric by recognizing the operation of external and internal factors upon rhetors and audiences, including the necessary role of perception. Understood in this way, the theory accounts for forms of rhetorical creativity through the definition of controlling elements of situations, for the production of rhetoric as purposive action, and for the degree of accuracy or clarity with which observable features of situations have been interpreted.