Exigence and Purpose: Study Guide (English Language 1.2)

Two questions that look alike

When you meet a text, two different questions help you place it:

1. Why was this written now? The answer is the exigence: the event, problem, question or need that provoked the writing.
2. What does the writer hope to achieve? The answer is the purpose: the effect the writer wants the text to have on its audience.

They are easy to mix up because in most texts they are connected. A problem arises (exigence) and the writer wants to bring about a remedy (purpose). But they point in opposite directions in time. The exigence looks back or around: it is what has already happened or is happening. The purpose looks forward: it is what the writer wants to happen next.

A quick test. If you can fill in “Because ___, the writer wrote,” you have an exigence. If you can fill in “The writer wants the audience to ___,” you have a purpose.

Kinds of exigence

An exigence can be:

• an event: a vote, a disaster, an anniversary, a ceremony, a court case;
• a problem that someone has noticed: a shortage, an injustice, a rising cost;
• a question or controversy already circulating: “Should the school day start later?”;
• a need or opportunity: a deadline, an invitation to speak, a chance to change a decision.

Some exigences are named in the text (“Last Tuesday the council voted…”). Others are implicit, and you must infer them from clues such as dates, references to recent events, or the way a text answers a question it does not repeat. When an exigence is implicit, say so and point to the clue.

Purpose: use a verb and a target

A purpose is best written as a verb plus a target: persuade the council to reverse a cut, warn residents of a hazard, honour those who died, reassure anxious parents, inform newcomers about a procedure, mobilise volunteers to act. Compare:

Weak purpose	Strong purpose
“To talk about school uniforms.”	“To persuade parents to support a change to the uniform policy.”
“To discuss the flood.”	“To reassure residents that the repair schedule is realistic, and to ask them to report new damage.”
“To show how bad litter is.”	“To shame readers into joining the clean-up by describing what the beach looked like at dawn.”

A weak purpose names a topic. A strong one names the effect on the audience.

One text, several purposes

Writers may have more than one purpose. A eulogy honours a person and comforts mourners. A charity appeal informs readers about a need and persuades them to donate. When you see more than one, distinguish a primary purpose (the main aim) from a secondary one (a supporting aim). A good answer says which is which and why.

How exigence leads to purpose

Treat the two as a chain:

Exigence (what happened or is wrong) → Writer’s goal (what should change) → Choices (evidence, tone, structure that will bring that change about).

If you can say what the exigence is and what the audience must do or think because of it, you will often find the purpose follows. For instance, a flood damages a village’s road (exigence); the parish clerk wants residents to report new cracks quickly so repairs can be prioritised (purpose); so the notice is short, lists a phone number first, and uses plain, non-technical language (choices).

A public-domain example: Douglass on the Fourth of July (1852)

Frederick Douglass was invited to speak at a commemoration in Rochester, New York, and delivered “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” on 5 July 1852. The occasion is the exigence: an invitation to address a public gathering to mark American independence. A speaker could have simply praised the founders. Douglass instead asks, “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?”

His purpose is not to honour the holiday. It is to make an audience who celebrate liberty confront the fact that millions of people are held in slavery in the same country, and so to move them to oppose slavery. The exigence (a celebration of freedom) is what gives the question its edge. Without that occasion the question would carry less force. This is a good example of exigence and purpose working together: the occasion is used, not just reported.

Worked example 1: separating cause and goal in a wartime essay

Task. In December 1776, Thomas Paine published The American Crisis, which begins: “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” Identify the exigence and purpose.

Step 1: Look for the trigger. The text says “in this crisis”. Historical context supplies the detail: the American army had suffered defeats and retreats in 1776, many enlistments were about to expire, and morale was low. The crisis the text names is the exigence. The text itself signals it (“these are the times”, “in this crisis”).

Step 2: Look for the action the writer wants. The words “shrink from the service” and “stands it now” show that Paine wants soldiers and citizens to keep serving instead of giving up.

Step 3: Write the exigence. “The military crisis of late 1776: defeats and expiring enlistments that tempted people to abandon the cause.”

Step 4: Write the purpose as verb plus target. “To rally discouraged soldiers and citizens to continue the fight, by shaming those who quit and praising those who stay.”

Step 5: Check the direction of time. The exigence (crisis, defeats) already exists. The purpose (renewed commitment) is something Paine wants to bring about. The two answers point in different directions, as they should.

Check. If the exigence had been written “to encourage soldiers”, that would be a purpose, not a trigger. If the purpose had been written “the army was losing”, that would be an exigence.

Worked example 2: an original notice (written by Marlbridge)

Notice to residents of Elm Court. On Monday the water company found a leak under the car park. The car park will be closed from Thursday for at least two weeks. Please do not park on Elm Road, which must stay clear for the repair lorries. A shuttle van will take anyone with limited mobility to and from the main gate. Thank you for your patience.

Task. State the exigence, the primary purpose, and a secondary purpose.

• Exigence: the discovery of a leak under the car park on Monday, which forces the closure.
• Primary purpose: to direct residents to change their behaviour: stop using the car park and keep Elm Road clear.
• Secondary purpose: to reassure and maintain goodwill, shown by the shuttle van offer and “Thank you for your patience”.

Why that order? The notice’s first demands are instructions (“Please do not park on Elm Road”), and the courtesy words come at the end. Primary purposes get the most space and the most direct language; secondary purposes often work through tone.

Check. The answers do not repeat each other: the exigence is an event; the purposes are effects on residents. If you wrote “to inform residents about a leak”, you would be confusing the trigger with the purpose, because “leak” is the exigence.

Reading for exigence and purpose under exam conditions

1. Read the first and last paragraphs first. First paragraphs often signal the exigence; last paragraphs often state what the writer wants the audience to do.
2. Look at the verbs in the writer’s requests. “Please sign”, “we must”, “let us resolve” signal an action purpose.
3. Use the source line. Many passages are introduced with a date, a place or a publication. These details often supply the exigence or the context.
4. Do not stop at the topic. If your first draft of a purpose could be written without mentioning the audience, add the audience.

Common misconceptions

• “Exigence and purpose are two words for the same thing.” The exigence is the trigger; the purpose is the goal. In a rhetorical analysis you should keep them apart.
• “The exigence is always a dramatic event.” It can be small: a question from a reader, a letter received, a routine deadline.
• “A writer has exactly one purpose.” A text can inform and persuade at once. Decide what is primary.
• “The purpose is the topic.” The topic is what the text is about; the purpose is what the text is for.
• “If the text does not state its exigence, it has none.” Every text has one. When it is implicit, infer it from dates, references and the shape of the argument.
• “Purpose words such as ‘discuss’ or ‘explore’ are fine.” They usually hide a vague idea. Replace them with persuade, warn, reassure, urge and the like.

Where this leads

The next topic, Audience and context, looks at who the writer is addressing and in what setting. Practise first with the practice questions, and check yourself against the checklist.