Geraldine Liew

Due: February 16, 2016

Mini-Essay 2: IDignity and the Rhetorical Situation
IDignitys mission is to assist individuals who dont have their personal identification by
helping them obtain it in the end. Personal identification is identified as birth certificates, ID
cards and social security cards. Without these, we are not able to do many things such as get a
job, go to school, vote and just be able to participate in our current society. However, obtaining a
personal identification is overwhelmingly difficult as the regulations are becoming stricter.
IDignity uses rhetorical situations through discourse on their website through various pieces such
as letters, videos, speeches, and more.
IDignity clearly presents a rhetorical situation at hand. A rhetorical situation is a situation
or event which we bring someone into by discourse to make it. Lloyd Bitzer identifies a
rhetorical situation as a complex of persons, events, objects, and relations presenting an actual
or potential exigence which can be completely or partially removed if discourse, introduced into
the situation, can so constrain human decision or action as to bring about the significant
modification of exigence (Palczewski 203).
In their introduction video, IDentity Crisis, they address the overview of the
organization. First, the exigence presented is getting an identification. The whole video shows
individuals who are struggling to get an identification with judges, notaries, volunteers helping
those individuals. The speaker addresses how difficult it is to get the identification and how
many volunteers are needed to help expedite the process. The audience is to anyone who is
willing to help out to these individuals, especially religious groups because the setting is at a
church, and the speaker says a lot of regard to God and blessings. A lot of their videos are

with references to God and in church settings. The constraint is the availability for anyone who
dont have identification, because if they said it was for anyone, people would take advantage of
it. IDignity only addresses it to homelessness and people who are in a extreme situation. They
address a lady in the video, who had 2 children all with no identification, who seemed at a very
distressed situation by waiting in line for a long time and carrying 2 children at their hands
IDignity does not only address homeless people, but even individuals who suffer from
identification such as amnesia. In 2004, a man was attacked unconscious in front of a Burger
King and lost his memory. IDignity helped find his identity by DNA results. This goes to show
that this non-profit organization goes to help anyone struggling with this matter.
IDignitys discourse to the House of Representatives was highly effective. Michael, the
executive director of IDignity addressed the issues and what IDignity has done to solve the
exigence at hand, which is the request of expanding ways to get IDs and social security easier
along with expanding the organization to bring more awareness across the nation. Although
Michael had mentioned the number of increasing clients and successful outcome of the
organization, they are still in need of help. The audience was the House of Representatives. The
persona that Michael gave off was the person of the year and a big part of helping the
hopelessness. It had definitely caught Representative Thompsons attention because she could
relate to it since her license was expired and fell into one of the people who needed help getting
through that process.
IDignity met a fitting response in their videos and addressing the House of
Representatives, which is a response that meets the expectations of the rhetorical situation by
using discourse with their discourse of videos. The videos addressed the requirements of a
rhetorical situation, which is an audience, exigence and constraint, as discussed above. The

videos indicate the persona that the rhetor, IDignity, is trying to perceive. The video shows the
character of IDignity, which has virtue to carry out the goals with good intentions, the social role
it plays upon people without identification, and the image that they perceive to others as helping
others from. A non-profit organization that started from churches definitely shows the audience
good character.

Works Cited
Palczewski, Catherine Helen, Richard Ice, and John Fritch. Rhetoric in Civic Life. State College,
PA: Strata Pub., 2012. Print.
Hudak, Stephen. No-Mans land: Amnesia stole his identity for 11 years. Orlando Sentinel.
September 22, 2015. Web. February 15, 2016.
"IDignity Video Gallery" Providing Identification for the Poor. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.