“I believe that this isan important test of the separation of church and state as we may see inour lifetime—as important a test—and it is critically important that weget it right” (Bloomberg ). His argument that the government should notprohibit people from worshiping as they wish could have been made with-out these exigent circumstances, but their inclusion changes the tone fromone of a defensive posture to a more vigorous one.

What is my audience’s persona? The dean of students.What is my persona? A student (not simply a student-writer) whois concerned about an issue on campus.What is my agenda? In this case, I want to provide healthy foodalternatives. I need to convince those with aposition of power to assist me.What values or concerns do myreaders have?After researching the job description forthe dean, I found out the dean has a missionstatement. The mission statement hasyielded a connection, which will require ex-planation but will at least hold the readers’attention.

One of the most common methods for creating exigency in academic writ-ing involves “creating a gap in the research,” a well-worn phrase that mostprofessors have heard and used numerous times. The strategy involvesfinding something new to say that contributes to an ongoing discussion

What type of persona do my readers have? What do they valueor find especially interesting? What common assumptions do theyhave, and do I share any of them? Do I believe any of their assump-tions are false? What agenda do they have? What motivates them?

Instead, one of the best ways to answerthis question is to assume a different persona. Think of a persona as a maskthat you can put on or take off as a writer. It’s a “think of yourself as” rhe-torical move.

exigency

Why bother, then,to make an argument sound enticing, especially if you may not really careabout it anyway?

What experiences have you had with paper, digital, and socialannotation

Spending just a few minutes preparing to move theannotation work you did with your peers to the next step—class discus-sion, an exam, or a writing project—will help you to get the most fromyour reading

This knowledgecan help you learn about others’ perspectives. As a writer, this insight mighthelp you see how people respond differently to the same writerly choice, orhow a readers’ experiences shape their interpretation of an argument.

What experiences haveyou had with annotation? How might those experiences prepare you to read incommunity with others

Before the inven-tion of the printing press, it was common to share a text and annotationsamong groups of readers even though the technology made reproducingthe text and annotations time consuming