14 Exigency
WHAT MAKES MY MESSAGE INDISPENSABLE TO MY READER
Quentin Vieregge
Overview
This essay defines the word exigency and explains its value as a way of gaining and holding a reader’s interest. Exigency is defined as explaining not simply why a topic matters generally but why it should matter specifically at this time and place and for one’s intended readership. Four different strategies for invoking exigency are given with specific examples from student writing, journalistic writing, and trade books to clarify each strategy. Special attention is given to remind students of their rhetorical context, the interests of their readership, their readers’ predispositions toward the subject matter and thesis (sympathetic, neutral, or antagonistic), and the possibility of connecting their thesis with larger issues, concerns, or values shared by the writer and his or her readers. The chapter closes with a discussion of how rhetorical uses of exigency differ depending on the genre.
Imagine someone browsing the aisles of a bookstore for something interesting to read. This customer has an interest, let’s say, for British rock, and, more broadly, popular music of the 1960s. After a few minutes, she finds a whole row of books, with titles about the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, and the British Invasion, but she only wants to buy one. She’ll have to choose among them, deciding which book grabs her interest and which deserves to be tossed aside.
To make her decision, she’ll ask a question that every reader ponders when opening a book, deciphering a poem, or reading a magazine article: “Is this text worth my time?” From an author’s perspective, this question may sound sacrilegious: “Of course it’s worth your time, because I wrote it and pored over every word.” But there’s nothing more sacred to a reader than his or her own time (just recall the last time you had a paper with a fast-approaching deadline and had to sort through a stack of library research). It’s not enough to prove one’s argument with irrefutable logic and overwhelming evidence; it’s your responsibility to hold the reader’s attention long enough for them to consider that evidence and logic. Inexperienced writers often assume that readers will have as much interest in a text’s subject matter as they do, or they believe that the relevance of the text to the reader will be self-evident, but readers can be impatient and must be convinced to read an argument before they can be persuaded to accept its thesis. It’s the writer’s job to clarify a text’s relevance. Rhetoricians sometimes refer to this concept as a text’s exigency, which may be defined as the circumstances and reasons why something matters—not only generally but specifically at this moment, in this place, for this group of people (presumably one’s readership). This essay will help you implement strategies to persuade your readers that your text is indispensable and that it cannot be put down, discarded, or deferred until later.
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