A Rhetorical Analysis Of Nikki Haley's Speech In The US

Words: 1719
Pages: 7

Nikki Haley is South Carolina’s first governor of color. As governor, she was tasked to address the public after Dylan Roof shot and killed 9 people at a historically black church (Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church) located in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015.
With the Confederate flag still flying high after this tragedy, many people across America were very angry. Taking this into consideration, Haley’s response to the entire situation was very important, and would affect how she is viewed by the public. Haley was expected to understand all of the things that come along with a rhetorical situation that included such a serious issue, and was expected to respond accordingly. Exigencies, audiences, and constraints are all extremely important to understand and analyze before giving a speech. In this essay, I will attempt to explain the aspects of a rhetorical situation, what Haley’s situation was specifically, and how I believe that she should react. Considering this, I believe that she should describe to the public what happened clearly, sympathize with the audience, and address people’s belief on the removal of the Confederate flag flying on government property after the shooting by Roof.
…show more content…
A rhetorical situation is a “context in which speakers or writers create rhetorical discourse” (Bitzer, 1992). In other words, it’s a situation in which a speaker speaks about an important subject (to bring modification). Furthermore, rhetorical criticism is important because it investigates the rhetorical act and explains it enough so that we could understand it. In a rhetorical situation, there are three parts to understand: the exigence, audience, and constraints (of the speaker). After understanding and analyzing all three, the rhetor is supposed to have a fitting