Notes on Audience, Context, and Exigence in Persuasive Writing

Effective persuasive writing and speaking depend on deep audience awareness. Speakers/writers must tailor their message, understanding audience concerns, demographics, and beliefs. Failing to adapt can lead to unsuccessful persuasion.
- Successful rhetoric often involves manipulating emotions to align audience beliefs.
- Authors consider their audience, from broad (universal themes like in Steinbeck) to specific (genre, age groups).
- For coursework, the teacher is the primary audience, requiring formality, though personal voice (e.g., sarcasm, humor) can still be expressed appropriately.
- Maintaining voice is crucial; adjust formality without losing personality.

Context refers to the surrounding situation, events, and issues when a piece is created, including explicit and implicit injustices. Historical context, like the 1930s setting of To Kill a Mockingbird, impacts reader reception.
Exigence is the "why now?"—the specific catalyst or spark that motivates the creation of a speech or text. It's closely tied to context and occasion, explaining the text's urgency (e.g., Civil Rights Movement as exigence for MLK's "I Have a Dream").

Before writing or speaking, always identify your audience, purpose, and context. Anticipate audience beliefs and potential objections.
Decide on an appropriate tone and formality, while preserving your authentic voice.
Recognize exigence to understand the text's timeliness and relevance.
Quick Recap:
- Audience: Intended recipients.
- Context: Surrounding situation, events, and conditions.
- Exigence: The motivating spark or "why now."
- Tone, formality, voice: How form and personality shape persuasion.
- Ethos, pathos, logos: Modes of persuasion.