Post 6

I felt like Grant-Davies article was very similar to the Backpack v. Briefcase article, because he also discussed who the audience is, talks about exigence, and constraints on rhetorical situations. Besides talking about the audience, exigence, and constraints, he goes on to describe discourse and how it ties in with these ways to analyze rhetorical situations, as well as how a rhetor is involved in different analyzing situations. According to Grant-Davies, discourse asks three questions, which are what is the discourse about, why is it needed, and what it is trying to accomplish. 

Discourse presents fundamental issues that evoke an emotional response from people on specific issues, values or principles. This can be tied in to constraints, because for example in this Guinness ad, not everyone can drink, whether it is because it is illegal, for a religious belief or because of personal reasons. Constrains and exigence are very similar because they are both trying to overcome specific goals, whether it is because of a belief or legal issues. He also questions what the goals are for discourse, or why it is needed. For example what is Guinness trying to achieve with their poster? To me Guinness is trying to get those who are too young to drink to get to know the product so that when they are able to begin to drink they will already have a brand name on their mind. This could be considered targeting the audience, because they want a broader audience besides the people who already are able to buy alcohol. Another audience that Guinness is trying to get to drink are those people who drink another type of alcohol. If those people see this ad and are drawn to it, they are going to be more likely to purchase the drink. Grant-Davies believes that the rhetor can be a volunteer role, as a parent, or in some other role that may be less readily defined and the rhetor can play several roles at once. The rhetor in this situation can either be someone who does or does not drink, and because of values or principles can judge it differently.