AP® English Language and Composition review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/lang/units/1/1-2)
Unit 1 · Topic 1.2
1.2 Exigence and purpose: why a writer writes
Exigence is the problem, event or need that pushes a writer to respond at a particular moment. Purpose is what the writer hopes the text will accomplish. Get both right and you can explain almost every choice in a passage.
Key terms
- exigence
- purpose
- occasion
- call to action
Exigence: the spark
Exigence answers the question "Why write this now?" It's the event, problem or need that made the text necessary. A war, a new law, a public scandal, a rumor, a letter that demands an answer, even a broken promise can all be exigences.
A useful test: imagine the text was written a year earlier. If it wouldn't make sense, you've probably found the exigence, because the text depends on something that just happened.
Purpose: what the text is supposed to do
Purpose is the writer's goal. Writers can have more than one, though one usually leads. Say it with a strong verb and a specific target. "To persuade" is almost always too vague, because nearly every text in AP Lang persuades. Persuade whom, of what, and to do what?
| Vague purpose | Precise purpose |
|---|---|
| To inform | To warn parents that a new app collects their children's location data |
| To persuade | To convince discouraged soldiers that the hardest moment of the war is worth enduring |
| To honor | To honor the dead by asking the living to finish the work they started |
Exigence, occasion and purpose
The occasion is the event or setting where a text appears, such as a graduation, a funeral, a newspaper's opinion page or a congressional hearing. The exigence is the need behind it. The purpose is the goal. At the Gettysburg cemetery dedication, the occasion was the ceremony, the exigence was the enormous loss of life in an unfinished war, and the purpose was to recommit the North to winning.
Some texts have no formal occasion at all. Thomas Paine's first "American Crisis" essay was printed in December 1776, when George Washington's army had lost New York, retreated across New Jersey, and faced enlistments that would run out at the end of the year. That crisis was the exigence. Paine's purpose was to stop the collapse in morale and keep soldiers and citizens committed to the cause.
Calls to action
Many purposes end in a call to action: a direct request that the audience do something. Look for commands ("Stand firm"), "let us" statements, and sentences with "must" or "should." When a passage has a call to action, it's strong evidence of the writer's main purpose, and it's often found near the end.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Finding exigence and purpose in Paine
Thomas Paine wrote the first "American Crisis" essay in December 1776, as Washington's army retreated and many soldiers were about to go home. It 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 a precise purpose, and explain how the opening serves that purpose.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: Exigence: the army's string of defeats and the danger that soldiers would leave when their enlistments ended. The opening even names it: "this crisis."
- Step 2: Purpose, said precisely: to persuade wavering soldiers and civilians to stay committed to the war at its lowest point.
- Step 3: Look at the choice. Paine sorts people into two groups. "Summer soldier" and "sunshine patriot" describe people who only show up when things are easy. The person who "stands it now" earns everyone's love and thanks.
- Step 4: Explain the effect: nobody wants to be the summer soldier, so the sorting puts pressure on readers to prove they're the other kind, which is exactly what Paine needs.
Answer: Model paragraph: Writing as Washington's army retreated and enlistments ran out, Paine needed to keep discouraged Americans from giving up. He opens by naming the moment a test, "the times that try men's souls," then splits his readers into two groups: the "summer soldier" and "sunshine patriot" who disappear when conditions turn hard, and the one who "stands it now." Because the first group sounds cowardly and the second earns "the love and thanks of man and woman," Paine makes staying in the fight a matter of personal honor at the very moment soldiers were tempted to leave.
Common mistakes
- Writing "the purpose is to persuade." Say who is being persuaded, of what, and to do what.
- Naming the topic as the exigence. "War" is a topic; "the army's retreat in December 1776 and soldiers about to go home" is an exigence.
- Assuming a text has only one purpose. A speech can mourn and motivate at once; say which purpose leads and how the others support it.
On the exam
- "The primary purpose of the passage is to..." is a common multiple-choice question. Eliminate answers that fit only one paragraph or that use a verb too strong or too weak for the passage.
- In the rhetorical analysis essay, a thesis with a precise purpose ("to shame wavering soldiers into staying") gives every body paragraph something specific to explain.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
4 questions on 1.2 Exigence and purpose: why a writer writes. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
Frederick Douglass, a formerly enslaved abolitionist and newspaper editor, speech at an Independence Day gathering in Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852, to which he had been invited as the speaker. From the extract printed in Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). Some text is omitted between paragraphs 1 and 2 and between paragraphs 2 and 3.
Which of the following best describes the exigence for Douglass's speech?
Douglass's main purpose in the passage as a whole is to
Written for this practice set: a student's draft of a short speech for the public-comment period of a city council meeting.
The writer wants to add a sentence at the end of paragraph 2 to show the council why the problem is becoming more urgent. Which choice best accomplishes this goal?
Which of the following best describes the main purpose of paragraph 3?
0 of 4 answered