This assignment is your opportunity to join the conversations we have been exploring all semester. In Unit 1, you reflected on your own experiences with language and discourse. Then in Unit 2, you read several texts about language and writing, listened rhetorically, and then put those voices into conversation with each other. Now, in Unit 3, you are going to enter the conversation by creating your own original text for a public audience–that is, a specific audience beyond this classroom.
Task: You will write a text for a public audience that covers at least 4 claims about writing/rhetoric/language and a thorough explanation for each claim. You can frame these 4 claims as “lessons” you learned in the class, or as advice you have for other people based on your experiences (note: the advice should not be about passing the class, but about writing/rhetoric/language). Look over our reading assignments this semester and you’ll see that many of them explore lessons the author learned, or advice the author has for other writers. That’s what you are going to do here. How you decide to frame your claims will largely depend upon the specific audience you choose for your project. For example, if your audience is comprised of incoming 1101 students, then your claims will look/sound different than if your audience is made up of professional writers.
Your project should have at least an introduction or a conclusion and a title. Depending upon the genre you choose for this project, you need decide if you will include an introduction, conclusion or both along with your 4 claims. You might use an introduction that frames the claims and prepares your reader for what follows and/or a conclusion that helps tie up loose ends and provides closure–it depends on the genre (see below). Either way, you should frame the 4 claims/lessons you discuss and/or explain your reason for writing (in a way that makes sense for the genre, audience, purpose–again, see below). In other words, how can your audience make sense of your 4 claims together? Since your introduction or conclusion should be written to your specific audience, you should clearly describe what you want them to do, see, or believe as a result of reading your claims. What do you want them to do with these claims? That should be addressed in an introduction or conclusion–which genre you choose will impact whether an introduction or conclusion (or both!) is more appropriate.
You should also choose a title that interests your audience and gives them an idea of what to expect from your work. The title of your project does not need to mirror the title of the assignment (so, not “My Personal Definition of Writing”). What title is appropriate for the content, purpose, genre, and audience of your work? Remember, titles often forecast what a document is about, so you’ll probably want to write the draft before you settle on a title that describes what your draft is about.
Purpose: To a degree, you will get to choose your purpose. Similar to what is explained above, your purpose will largely depend upon the specific audience you choose for your project. In part, this depends on whether you want to talk about lessons you’ve learned, advice you have for beginning writers, thoughts that relate to more advanced writing or professional writing, or something else. You might think of your purpose as debunking common myths about writing, or you might choose to demystify the writing process for your audience, or you might provide advice to your audience. In other words, you have to write about 4 claims, but “why” you are writing your claims for your audience is up to you. But you do need to name your purpose for writing in your topic proposal and stick to it.
Audience: You get to pick your audience. As explained above, this is a very important decision because your audience impacts what you write and your purpose for writing. Who do you want to write for? Maybe incoming freshmen? Maybe this is a text you see being distributed to 1101 students on the first day of class? Maybe it’s a text that will be distributed at the writing center? Do you want to write for students like you–first-generation college students, Black students, multilingual writers? Maybe you want to write to students in your major, professionals in your field of study, or middle school students? Just remember that whoever you are writing for is a public audience–meaning that it is an audience beyond our classroom and there will be people in this audience that you don’t know personally. This might be an audience that you have some familiarity with (i.e., incoming 1101 students or an audience related to your culture) or an audience that is more unfamiliar to you (i.e., readers of FIU News or elementary school students). Whatever audience you select, your audience can’t be “everyone” — pick a specific group of people that will be interested in and benefit from your perspectives and then write for them.
Genre: You also get to pick your genre, as long as it’s a written text and it is at least 1000 words long. You also want your genre to make sense given your specific purpose and audience. The genres that will be most effective for an audience of incoming 1101 students might be different than the genres that would be effective for a younger audience or an audience in a non-academic space. You can look back at texts we read in Unit 1 and Unit 2 and choose to use one of those genres, including op-eds, articles, and blogs. Whatever genre you choose, you should write a text that looks and acts like that genre. (In other words, you can’t write a 5-paragraph essay and say it’s an article–what do articles look like? What do they do that 5-paragraph essays don’t do?) Use examples from the genre you’ve chosen and use them as a model. In the past, some example genres students have used include a blog, an article in the FIU newspaper, a magazine article, a “how to” article, a review, an open letter, an essay, a narrative, etc.
Consider the visual aspects of the genre you choose and make appropriate rhetorical choices. Will you use subheadings? Bulleted lists? Would it be effective to incorporate different colors or font types? Does the genre you chose typically include images? Will you organize your writing into paragraphs, columns, or something else? Similar to the choices you will make regarding your claims, your purpose, and your audience, the visual design of your project requires you to make purposeful, thoughtful decisions. Put simply, you want your purpose, your audience, and your genre to make sense together and complement one another.
Other Requirements:
Claims + Explanations: As explained above, your personal definition of writing should include at least 4 claims about writing/rhetoric/language. Along with each claim, you need to include an explanation that expands upon that claim. While your genre will inform the choices you make, your claims should be explained and/or defended using your experiences in this class along with your personal perspectives and/or experiences beyond this class. A minimum requirement of this project is that you make at least one reference to a class reading or assignment in support of each claim. In other words, you must draw connections between the claims you are choosing and the experiences you had in this class. You are also invited to bring in personal, cultural, and/or professional experiences as they relate to each claim.
Make sure that your claims work together in some way. This will better serve your audience and purpose. It’ll also help you make connections between your claims. Your introduction and/or conclusion will help your reader see those connections, too.
Since each claim will be clearly stated as a sentence before, after, or alongside each corresponding explanation, place that sentence in bold so that I can clearly find the 4 claims.
