The exigence component of the rhetorical situation deals with why your piece of work exists. This is tightly related to purpose, but exigence actually comes first.

For example, my purpose for my memo was to get the City College of New York to fix the way they cancel classes. But the exigence for my memo was that the system for cancelling classes is horrible. Without my exigence, I would not have had a purpose. In other words, without a horrible system, I would have not had a need to get something fixed.

This is a component of the rhetorical situation that took me the entire semester to really understand. It, like purpose, is critical to know before undertaking your writing assignment. With your exigence, you will know your purpose. Then with your purpose, the rest will come. Purpose is key, and exigence is a means to purpose. Invest in contemplating your exigence.

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