Exigence is that which incites you to take action, and in our case it has been that which incites us to write.  I certainly was not well aware of what exigence was at the beginning of the semester.  In fact, I can distinctly remember being under the impression that it was, for all intents and purposes, the same thing as urgency.  Now, it does bear some similarities to urgency, in the sense that both involve an impetus and both indicate something that will ideally be accomplished sooner rather than later.  Exigence, however, speaks to something much broader.  It is essentially a condition in the world that poses a challenge for people to respond to.  Each document I have written has been in response to a particular exigence, even if I didn’t always think about this acutely.  

My memo was written in response to a problem with the declaration process that afflicts many students at CCNY, not merely because I wanted to get something done (figure 5).  Even the engineering proposal, which can seem on the surface to be written mainly because a company wants money, was written in order to address a serious problem facing Nassau County residents: poor traffic design compounds a high propensity for flood events.   Writing in response to climate change likely made me more attuned to the magnanimous side of the proposal and further demonstrated how exigence plays a complex and important role in not only the content of a writing piece but also its stance, its media, and even which genre is employed (figure 6).  I have gone from thinking exigence means urgency to understanding how it can fuel even the most business-oriented writing.  

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