Recap
Exigence is what prompts a text: an event, a problem, a question or a need. It looks back or around. Purpose is what the writer wants the text to achieve: it looks forward and is best written as a verb plus a target (“persuade the council to reverse the cut”). A text can have several purposes, so decide which is primary. If an exigence is not stated, infer it from dates, references and the way the text answers an existing question.
Key relationships
| Idea | Test sentence | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Exigence | “Because ___, the writer wrote.” | Because a leak closed the car park. |
| Purpose | “The writer wants the audience to ___.” | Park elsewhere and keep the road clear. |
| Primary purpose | The main effect sought; gets most space and direct language. | Change parking behaviour. |
| Secondary purpose | A supporting effect, often carried by tone. | Keep goodwill. |
Chain to remember
Exigence (what is wrong or has happened) leads to a purpose (what should change) which leads to choices (the evidence, tone and structure used to bring it about).
Worked mini-example
Paine, The American Crisis (1776). Exigence: the military crisis of late 1776, with defeats and expiring enlistments. Purpose: to rally discouraged soldiers and citizens to keep serving, by shaming those who shrink and honouring those who stand. Evidence in the text: “in this crisis”; “shrink from the service of their country”; “he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman”.
Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” (5 July 1852). Exigence: an invitation to speak at a gathering for the national holiday. Purpose: to make an audience celebrating liberty face the existence of slavery and be moved against it.
Quick checks for your own writing
- Can I say my exigence in one sentence that begins with “Because”?
- Does my purpose have a verb and a target audience?
- Have I said which purpose is primary and which is secondary?
- If the exigence is implicit, have I pointed to the clue?
Mistakes to avoid
- Writing a topic (“to discuss the flood”) as a purpose.
- Writing the writer’s goal as the exigence, or the trigger as the purpose.
- Listing exigence and purpose but never showing how the text’s choices follow from them.
- Using vague verbs such as discuss, talk about, explore.
- Ignoring implicit exigence because the text never says “I am writing because”.
Quick self-check
- A town votes to close a pool. A resident writes to the paper. What is the exigence? The vote to close the pool.
- What is a better version of “The purpose is to discuss litter”? “To persuade readers to join the beach clean-up by showing what the beach looked like after the storm.”
- In the Elm Court notice, which is the primary purpose? To make residents stop using the car park and keep Elm Road clear. Reassurance is secondary.
- A date, a place and a publication name are given before a passage. Which components might they supply? Context, and often the exigence.
- Does “the war was going badly” state an exigence or a purpose? An exigence.
For the full explanation and worked examples, return to the study guide.