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To truly master the threshold concepts of Rhetoric, we first need to better understand the concept of Occasion, especially the elements Kairos and Exigency.
Why Does Occasion Matter?
Consider the example of violin virtuoso Joshua Bell, who played an unannounced concert in a Washington, DC Metro station back in 2007. You can read the account of the event in “Pearls Before Breakfast” by Gene Weingarten. The link is available through our Library and listed in our class Blackboard site. Bell is a musician who regularly earns $1,000 per minute to play violin in traditional concert setting or privately booked concerts for heads of state. But what happens when he shows up at the Metro station unannounced in jeans and a T-shirt? Do the workday commuters, people who might otherwise pay hundreds of dollars a ticket to watch him in the symphony, even stop to listen?
In short, no. Only seven people stopped to listen for more than a minute. Twenty-seven gave money as they walked by: A total of less than $35.
You can watch the video here:
In this situation the speaker (performer) and even the audience (DC professionals) was likely the same as they would have been if he had performed at the Kennedy Center. When you listen to the music in the video above, you can also probably tell he’s talented, even if you don’t know anything about classical music.
So why did the majority of people walk by without even stopping to listen?
The answer is Occasion: the context of the situation. Without the appropriate context–a concert hall, a tuxedo, an announcement of who he was, a ticketed event where people had time to enjoy the music–the message was lost.
Consider this: Once it was known what happened, Bell played another Metro station concert. This time it was announced and he was surrounded by other musicians. And guess what happened? It drew an enormous crowd. Even though the location was the same as before (a Metro station), the overall context had changed.
Occasion is more than the who, what, where, and when of a situation. It’s a complex interaction of different factors about that situation.
To understand Occasion–or context–we have to understand two very important ideas: Kairos and Exigence.
What is Kairos?
kairos
Pronunciation /ˈkīräs/ /ˈkaɪrɑs/
noun
singular
-
A propitious moment for decision or action.
Ancient Greeks had two different senses of time–chronological time and situational time. Kairos was the name given to a circumstantial kind of time, “a window of opportunity during which something could happen” (Crowley and Hawhee 2009, 45).
Kairos is about the specific social space and situation in which arguments could be made. This includes what is expected of the situation.
Kairos is about the precise combination of timing and action. Effective communicators have to recognize or create just the right moment to make the right move in order to communicate effectively.
You already know about Kairos. Think about the difference between how you text your mom and how you text your friends. Or, think about any essay you’ve ever written for school. Chances are that you already understand the situation of a school essay is different than a text message. You probably know that teachers expect certain styles of grammar, the use of paragraphs, and appropriate resources.
In your classes the kairos of the writing situation was probably hidden by the requirements of the assignment. School assignments have due dates. They have specific requirements. Most teachers in your past probably haven’t taken a lot of time to discuss why the writing assignment mattered, other than for a grade.
But in college, your professors will often expect the essays and other writing you do to be meaningful and effective. Rather than reporting on facts, college-level writing often asks you to create new meaning, to join a conversation, and to communicate your knowledge and mastery of a topic effectively. Understanding and mastering kairos can help with this.
Questions to Ask about Kairos
Before you begin any project or writing situation, you should think about the following questions1:
- What is special about this moment? How can I tell?
- What opportunities for communication or persuasion can I see in this specific situation?
- What would surprise this audience at this time? Why do I think that?
- Are there any special rules or manners the speaker (writer) is expected to follow? How do I know?
- How frequently does the opportunity to make this kind of argument come along?
- What could a speaker (writer) do in this situation to create a rhetorical opportunity?
- What could a speaker (writer) do in this occasion that they couldn’t do later on?
- What happens if the speaker (writer) isn’t successful with this audience? How high are the stakes?
If the topic is one that has been discussed a million times before, why are you writing about it? If the audience isn’t interested in the topic or doesn’t have any reason to be engaged, how can you create a sense of importance?
Language of Kairos
Part of establishing an understanding of kairos in your own writing is in using words and phrases that indicate to your reader the appropriateness of the occasion for this time and this place.
Looking for time-based signal words (time markers) in your reading can help you identify the kairos of a written text, and using time markers in your own text can indicate your understanding of the appropriateness of the rhetorical moment.
| At this point… | It’s now important… | Last X years… |
| A new degree of urgency… | X is the highest/lowest on record… | New normal… |
| X is a game changer… | X is outdated… | X has perfect timing… |
| The turning of the tide… | We need to move as quickly as we can… | X is record setting… |
| X is on the wrong side of history… | X is trending now… | Ax has evolved/changed… |
Kairos and Exigency
Part of understanding the impact of time on the kairos of a rhetorical situation is also understanding a concept known as exigency.
exigency
Pronunciation /ˈeksəjənsē,eɡˈzijənsē/
noun
singular
-
an urgent need or demand
The exigency of a rhetorical situation is the urgency of the occasion. To determine the exigency of an occasion, you can ask yourself, “Why is this communication needed right now–for this time, place, and audience?”
Exigency is more than, “it might be nice to talk about this,” or “I can’t think of anything else, so I might as well talk about this. Exigency is about a need.
Think about the example of Joshua Bell playing in the DC Metro station. The commuters had very specific needs at that moment: to get to work on time or to make it to their train. They didn’t need to hear beautiful music. There was nothing about the beauty of his performance that inspired them to put listening above their other exigent (urgent) purposes.
Exigency means that the occasion–the context and situation–is urgent and necessary. If it isn’t, you need to ask yourself why you are taking the time to discuss a topic that isn’t urgent for an audience who doesn’t need the information.
Why Should I Care About Occasion?
You might be thinking, “why should I care about this? After all, my occasion is set for me by the professor who assigns the work.”
You’re not wrong. For academic assignments, much of the occasion or context for your work is predetermined by the professor and the assignment instructions. However, understanding kairos and exigency can help you select more appropriate–and therefore more effective–topics and research questions. Understanding exigency, especially, can help you double-check to make sure that the argument you are making is urgent and needed. And having a strong sense of the occasion–kairos–can help you write and compose stronger work overall, because you understand your audience’s needs more clearly.
But to truly master the concept of occasion, you need to have a clear understanding of audience, and its importance to writing.