Assignment 4: Writing for Public Audiences

175 Points

Due: 12/10/21

Assignment Overview

We have spent most of this semester writing and researching in order to gain expertise on a focused issue. We have also built an awareness of how audience and purpose influence specific choices we make as writers. Now, you have the opportunity to use your knowledge to write for a public audience. This project has two phases:

In the first phase, you will create a set of sample materials for your committee’s recommendation report project, based on the audiences, messages, genres, and media you identified in Assignment 3. Each committee member should pick two specific public genres that support the committee’s project—see “The Rhetorical Situation,” below, for more explanation. As you compose these materials, you should focus especially on making deliberate, rhetorically informed choices in word choice, tone, essential and non-essential information, organization, design, and so on.

Before you begin phase 1, your group will prepare a communication plan that identifies which genres are appropriate for this assignment based on your group’s project. This plan will also indicate which group member is responsible for which genres. This will allow your instructor to sign off on your planned genres before you begin this assignment.

In the second phase, you will perform a rhetorical analysis of the final products you produce in part one of the assignment. The goal of this rhetorical analysis is for you to consider how you shape your writing as you shift genres and audiences. You will need to move beyond justifying your choices on aesthetic grounds (“I thought this looked/sounded better”) and instead justify them on rhetorical grounds: Who was your audience? What was your purpose? What are the genre expectations you were working with, and how did you shape your content to address those expectations? What was your role as the writer, and how is that role reflected in your writing? Also, how do these materials support the larger needs and objectives of your committee and its proposal?

To answer these questions, you will need to quote directly from your public writing materials (or describe visual design choices, where appropriate), as these are the evidence you will use to support your analysis and your argument. To highlight this analysis, you will also need to compare your two genres directly to one another, focusing on the different choices you made in each. You may even choose to compare them to the other genres you’ve composed this semester, such as the literature review or the grant proposal. To conclude your reflective rhetorical analysis, describe what you have learned about writing, rhetoric, and genre over the course of this semester, and how you hope to use this knowledge after ENGL 130, in your coursework, your major, and/or your career.

The Rhetorical Situation

The rhetorical situation for the first phase of this assignment—your public writing materials—will be determined by the needs of your committee and the typical expectations for writing in two genres. We will discuss a number of potential genres in detail. Whichever genres you choose, it should be clear that 1) you are using your ideas and knowledge from previous assignments in new ways; and 2) the new genres suit the needs of your committee’s project and the people the project is designed to benefit. Therefore, you will need to clear your choices with your committee and me by December 3rd.

The rhetorical situation for the second phase—your reflective rhetorical analysis—is as follows:

Genre: Rhetorical Analysis. Chapter 5 of the Guide to Writing describes a rhetorical analysis in detail. Chapter 6, on genre analysis, is also relevant.

Audience: Your audience for this rhetorical analysis is your instructor and yourself. You need to demonstrate to me your familiarity with rhetorical language and your ability to use it to produce new genres, and you should simultaneously articulate for yourself what you know about writing, rhetoric, and genre that you can use when you communicate in a range of courses and contexts moving forward.

Purpose: As indicated above, your primary purpose for writing this rhetorical analysis will be to justify the choices you made in developing your public writing materials and to demonstrate the rhetorical knowledge you’ve gained this semester. Secondarily, you might also think of yourself as offering your instructor with guidelines for evaluating your public writing products.

Grading Criteria

Possible Points

Public Writing Products

Each piece addresses the needs and objectives of your committee’s project and the people the project is designed to benefit

(20 per piece)

Each piece reflects awareness of audience, purpose, and writers’ role as appropriate to the chosen genre, as articulated in How Writing Works and in your reflective rhetorical analysis

(20 per piece)

Each piece demonstrates careful attention to language through correct spelling, grammar, citation, formatting; and, when appropriate to the genre, demonstrates careful attention to visual design

(10 per piece)

Reflective Rhetorical Analysis

Provides thoughtful and detailed analysis of your public writing products in order to illustrate the rhetorical choices made

Provides specific evidence and examples to support analysis

Concludes by reflecting on your current rhetorical practices and the implications of your learning in ENGL 130 for future courses and contexts

Demonstrates careful attention to language through correct spelling, grammar, citation, and formatting

Total

175

The post Assignment 4: Writing for Public Audiences 175 Points Due: 12/10/21 Assignment Overview appeared first on PapersSpot.