Reworking the Research Paper
GENRE REMIX ASSIGNMENT: This is a two-part assignment.
Part 1: Remixed paper (at least 500 words)
Part 2: Reflection ( at least 500 words)
You’ve just finished writing your research paper, a well-researched argument about some issue that affects the local community. However, you wrote it using the standards of the academic essay genre (think the paper’s structure, voice, and citation style). That genre may not be the best choice if you were to present the issue to someone outside of an academic situation.
Your task now is to take the topic and argument you presented in your research paper and reconstruct it in a genre or style that is better suited for a popular audience. You will submit a remixed paper/text and a reflection that describes the reasoning behind the choices you made for the remix.
The Writing Process
Step 1: Pick a new genre for your work. You’ll have to decide what genre is most appropriate for your topic and purpose. To pick a genre, you want to start by considering who could benefit from your work/message (AUDIENCE). Be specific as you imagine your audience. Then, think about HOW you could best reach that audience. Would your audience read a newspaper, listen to speech, receive a letter, etc.?
Choose from one of the following:
a letter
a speech
a newspaper or magazine article
an advice column letter and response
Step 2: Do some research (yes, research) about that genre to determine its characteristics and norms. You’ll want to know about the expected format, appropriate tone, and standards of style. Find some examples of the genre and pay attention to how the author crafts and presents the message.
Step 3: Make a plan for how you will convince your new audience of your stance on the topic. You might use the same sources that you used in the research paper, but recognize that you’ll be using them in different ways. Citation styles might be different, and this audience might be convinced by different types of sources (more emphasis on credible news organizations, less on peer-reviewed journals). Consider the rhetorical strategies that you will use (ethos, logos, pathos, tone, word choice, etc).
Step 4: CREATE a new work. There is room for creativity here. Explore a new voice and style.
Step 5: REFLECT : To go along with your reworked research paper, write a thoughtful and detailed reflection in which you explain the choices you made as you crafted your remix. This is where you are offering an analysis of your own rhetorical choices. You might even review some of the questions for rhetorical analysis.
Your reflection should respond to the following questions:
Who was the target audience of your Research Remix? Offer a detailed description of your target audience. You should consider the following: size (a speech to 20 people might differ from a speech written for 1000; a letter written to one person or a small organization will have different approaches), location, age, socio-economic status, gender, interests, occupations, etc.
What was the purpose of the text you produced? Persuade? Inform? Motivate? Be specific. Persuade to do, feel, or think what? Motivated to respond in what way? How do you want your audience to respond to this text you composed for the research remix?
What type of text did you produce for the Research Remix? How was this the best decision in light of your chosen audience and purpose? Why did you choose to use this genre over another?
What generic expectations would an audience have of the type of text you chose for the Research Remix? How do you know this? What examples did you find that were successful? (cite or reference them in the remix) How did you use the examples as models for your work? Describe some of the conventions of the genre (you might have to do a little research and reading). In what ways did you comply with these expectations? In what ways will you purposely violate these expectations? What did you do? Why?
What specific choices did you made to reach your audience? Point out examples of ethos, logos, pathos, tone, etc. For example, if you use pathos in your piece, what specific emotional response were you trying to create and why? How did you attempt to appeal to your audience’s emotions? This is a significant part of the assignment; make sure to give a detailed discussion here. This section may be a bit longer than the rest.
Your reflection should help the instructor understand how to experience the Remix. Many students find it easier to respond to the points above by numbering their answers to make sure that each point is thoroughly and thoughtfully addressed.
Writing Tips
Shape your writing to fit a particular rhetorical situation
By far the biggest task ahead of you in this paper is to understand the rhetorical situation you’re facing. It is radically different from the one that drove your research paper. Your audience is different: you are no longer writing to academics. Your purpose is different: you are likely trying to persuade more than to inform. And your genre is seriously different: you are not writing an academic essay with everything that goes with it.
Use a variety of strategies to generate ideas, create a first draft, revise ideas and organize and edit paragraphs and sentences.
You will want to approach this paper differently than you did the research paper. A large part of your grade will be based on how well you address the genre you choose. Hence, you are going to need to research that genre. Read a lot of examples, find sources that discuss effective writing of that type, and talk to me.
Identify and evaluate the underlying values of arguments.
A popular audience is convinced by different types of sources than an academic one. While we academics like to see material published in peer reviewed journals and scholarly books, the populace puts more emphasis on reports from credible news organizations and quality magazines. That doesn’t mean that peer reviewed pieces have no role in your paper – they just shouldn’t dominate the sources that you use.
You will also really want to think about how to convince this particular audience. What will students at TTC find convincing? What will get your hometown residents motivated? The arguments that you use will, by and large, determine the effectiveness of this paper.
Earning the Grade
When I review your assignment, I’m looking to see that your remix and reflection show:
an understanding of your audience
clear rhetorical strategies for achieving your desired purpose
an understanding of the generic expectations for the type of document that you are composing. Hence, it is important to do some research to see examples of successful pieces in that field/genre
a clear articulation of the decisions you made and why you made them. Refer back to some of the rhetorical choices we learned about for our rhetorical analysis assignment. an appropriate persona for the audience, purpose, and genre that you have chosen
appropriate use of conventions, including MLA, APA, or an appropriate citation formatting.
Make sure that all of this this is demonstrated in the Remix and discussed in the Reflection.
I attatched the Research paper i did last week but I don’t know if you will need it for this one or not.
