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Marco Montero
Dr. Pavel Zemliansky
ENC 1102H
6 March 2016
The Effect of Exigence on Genre

Genres are present in every aspect of our lives. They encompass all of our forms of
communication. Amy Devitt says, genres identify the linguistic ecology of discourse
communities (542). Genres are the vessel we use to transfer ideas to one another. These ideas
travel within or across discourse communities. But where do these genres come from?
Genres are created. Genres are made for the sole purpose of responding to an exigence.
Exigence is one of the four constituents of a rhetorical situation. The other three are rhetor,
audience, and constraints. Grant-Davie tells us that exigence is the matter and motivation of the
discourse (266). Exigence is the demand that a problem requires or the answer to a question that
is asked. Sometimes there is a rhetorical situation that has never been responded to before. This
is when a genre has to be created.
Members of a community have to respond to a rhetorical situation through a genre. When
there isnt a genre already present, then someone has to create one. In Kerry Dirks Navigating
Genres, he talks about how George Washington had to create the genre with which to address
the state of the union. Today, this is commonly known as the State of the Union Address. Dirk
says, Because this genre was completely new, he had complete freedom to pick its form and
content. All presidents following him now have these former addresses to help guide their
response because the situation is now a reoccurring one (252). George Washington had to create

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the first version of the genre that is used to address the state of the union. Later on the genre may
change slightly, but that is left to the other presidents that follow him.
Genres are allowed to change. They are modified in order to respond to the exigence.
Whatever call to action is present may cause alterations to the previous version of what the genre
was. In the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), there are numerous genres
being used within the discourse community. There are magazines, tutorials, letters, and even
standards. One of the genres, the standard, has to be amended to over time since technology
changes over time.
In a standard, it goes through and talks about the ratings, functional components,
temperature limitations, test procedures, and even offers an application guide. By providing all of
this, the standard drives the functionality, capabilities and interoperability of a wide range of
products and services that transform the way people live, work and communicate. This is the
exigence that standards respond to. Since a standard is just another genre, it has to change as the
exigence calls for a change.
IEEE comes out with new drafts or amendments for older standards that are in need of
being updated every few years. The exigence calls to the members of the IEEE discourse
community. It gives them a reason to have to modify the old standard. Solely because of this
exigence, members within IEEE start to work together to try and create a new version of the
standard. They go through a few drafts and eventually will create the new standard. Due to the
exigence, genres have different structure and characteristics. By changing the exigence, and in
turn the rhetorical situation, the genre has to change.
The genre changes due to the exigence. In Boyds Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking) she
goes through a few examples in which genre varies based on the rhetorical situation. At first, it

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entails a detective report of a murder. Then it encompasses a coroners report of that same
murder, a eulogy for the deceased, and finally a closing argument from the perspective of the
prosecutor addressing the jury. All of these genres deal with a similar rhetorical situation, but are
drastically different in the way in which each genre works.
Each of these genres is made for the sole purpose of responding to the exigence for the
given rhetorical situation. In the case of the detective report Boyd says, All of these opening
sentences note some kind of phone call that gets them to the scene of the crime, all of them
establish more specifically the location, all of them note precise times (which could be of
significance), all of them are in first person (90). The detective has to keep the writing in first
person and writes what he or she witnessed upon arriving to the crime scene. This happens
because it is what the exigence calls for. The detective report is a genre that was created to
inform others of what was encountered at a crime scene. Later on in Boyds essay, Boyd asks the
readers to attempt writing a coroners report, a eulogy, and a closing argument. Each of these
responds to a different exigence. The coroners report responds to having to examine a body, the
eulogy responds to the moral obligation of being a good friend, and the closing argument
responds to the obligation a prosecutor has to addressing the jury. Just as these genres are
structured differently, so are the IEEE standards.
The IEEE standard is structured differently than regulatory documents found in other
discourse communities. In the IEEE Standard for Low-Voltage AC Power Circuit Breakers, the
document is organized in a very professional way. There is a table of contents that shows that the
standard will go through and talk about the ratings, functional components, temperature
limitations, test procedures, and the application guide. Each aspect of this is appropriate since it
is what the exigence calls for. In the application guide it says the following, Direct-acting trip

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devices should be selected so as to provide the trip settings required, and should have a
continuous current rating equal to, or greater than, the maximum current rating of the circuit to
which they are to be applied (14). The standard keeps everything in the third person. It is very
specific and has a very technical appearance.
This genre, that of a standard in the IEEE discourse community, was created to respond
to the exigence that members within the professional association have. Members need to know
what are the capabilities, limitations, functions, and applications for low-voltage AC power
circuit breakers. Other standards have also been created to serve a similar purpose, but for other
different electrical or electronic components. Members within IEEE expect the standards to be
organized in the most efficient way. The genre is set up to be useful within the discourse
community.
John Swales talks about discourse communities and how they are defined. He has six
characteristics that help conceptualize whether a group is a discourse community. IEEE can be
seen as a discourse community since it follows most, if not all, of the characteristics. In Swales
the concept of discourse community he says, A discourse community utilizes and hence
possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims (26). Swales is
saying that discourse communities use genres to further their goals. IEEE uses standards to help
its members grasp the knowledge of electrical components and understand how the components
can be used. For a group to be considered a discourse community it has to possess and use them.
Genres are a very important aspect of discourse communities. They help the community
achieve its goals and provide information to its members. Genres are driven by the exigence of
the rhetorical situation. Whatever exigence the discourse community needs to respond to, a genre
will be able to be used to respond to it. Discourse communities create genres to solve a problem

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or situation that has not been solved or dealt with before. If a discourse community has already
encountered the situation, it can modify the genre to respond to the exigence. The exigence is
what ties together genres and discourse communities. If there were no such thing as exigence,
there would be no genres. Thus there would be no discourse communities. The exigence is the
most important aspect in rhetorical situations, genres, and discourse communities.

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Works Cited
Boyd, Janet. Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking). Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing (2011):
87-101.
Devitt, Amy J., Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff. Materiality and genre in the study of
discourse communities. College English 65.5 (2003): 541-558.
Dirk, Kerry. Navigating Genres. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing (2010): 87-101.
GrantDavie, Keith. Rhetorical situations and their constituents. Rhetoric Review 15.2 (1997):
264-279.
Standard for Low-Voltage AC Power Circuit Breakers Used in Enclosures. IEEE (2008): 1-25.
Swales, John. "The concept of discourse community." Genre analysis: English in academic and
research settings (1990): 21-32.