Unit 3 Assignment | Writing in a New Genre
The Assignment
At the end of Unit 2, we asked ourselves what is the most important thing you learned and what audience do you think needs to know about it. For Unit 3, we now are going to think about what is the best genre to tell that audience the information you learned in Unit 2.
Questions you will want to consider for this assignment include: How are you going to get your target audience to listen to your message? Will they listen to a podcast? Watch a TED Talk-like video? Read an op-ed column from a newspaper or magazine? Read the words to a poem or song? Read a political cartoon? Scroll through an Instagram carousel? When selecting your genre to work in, you just need to make sure that it is new to you and appropriate for the audience you choose. No middle school kid is going to sit still for a 30-minute political speech even if itâs about how to keep from being bullied. Wrong genre, poor analysis of your audience.
Transforming your writing in this way will help you think about how the conventions of genre not only relate to the audience you are trying to reach, but also ultimately shape the writing and the presentation of information.
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This Is a Two-Part Assignment
The first consists of the document your produce in a new genre. The second part consists of an artistâs statement that explains your process of creating this document and the rhetorical choices you made.
Part I: WRITING IN A NEW GENRE
Choose one of the following genres (pick a genre that would appeal to your audience):
- script for a TED Talk
- X (Twitter) thread (at least 10 posts for the thread)
- podcast script and (optional) recording of the podcast
- an infographic
- an op-ed column
- an Instagram carousel
- an informational video intended for TikTok or Instagram
- a short video for YouTube
- a brochure
- an editorial comic
- a listicle
- a poem or song
- a childrenâs book
Use your research to draft a document for your specific audience using the format and conventions of the genre you have chosen. Be sure to pay attention to the unique qualities of your genre, including appropriate length and formatting. Also, be sure to give credit to your sources in order to avoid plagiarism. Note: If there is another genre you would prefer to write in, reach out so we can discuss your choice.
Part II: ARTISTâS STATEMENT
Explaining the rationale behind our actions and decisions is an important kind of reflective writing because it makes visible what is otherwise invisible. Composers of all sorts often write an Artistâs Statement for their audience that explains their inspirations, intentions, and choices in their creative and critical processes. It helps the reader understand the process that led to the final product by providing insight into what the author set out to do, how they did it, and what they might do to further improve the piece.
In other words, in an Artistâs Statement, you step back and consider what you did and what you might have done differently and might do differently in the future. This is exactly what youâll do in this reflection about the genre project youâve just completed: you will write about the choices you made, why you made them, what happened, and how you feel about it now. So for this document of at least 600 words, youâre going to create your own reflection about your project, and do it in a way that tells us what happened and when â the chronology of thought and actions that took you from your first ideas about it all the way to the completed project.
There are three sections in your Artistâs Statement:
- Before I began:Think back through everything you did â every choice you made and why â before you actually got to work on the genre project. Here are the things you need to talk about:
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- Context:Â Give us the background for this project. Remind us how you became interested in the topic.
- Rhetorical Situation and Related Choices:Â Tell us the âwhyâ of your project. What was your purpose for making this project? What audience did you want to direct this information to? Why that audience specifically? Where did you see your piece being shown or distributed to your audience? What strategiesâwhether written or visual did you use to reach your intended audience and achieve your purpose? How did you try to communicate the credibility of your piece?
- Genre Considerations:Â Why did you chose the genre you did? What made you think that genre would be the best one for your audience? For example, if you did a listicle, what made a listicle the best way to get the information to your chosen audience?
- Doing the project:Walk us chronologically through the process you went through to get it done: this then this then this⌠What went well? What didnât go so well? What did you have to change and when? Did you throw out your original idea altogether, and if so, why? Who/where did you turn to for help? When did you panic (if you did) and what did you do about it?
- Now that itâs âdoneâ: How do you think it turned out? What, given all the time and money and expertise in the world, would you have done differently? What works great, what are you happiest about? How easy or hard was it? How do you feel about having done something like this as a college project â can you see using any of this in the future (tools, analysis, etc.)?
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Here are the grading criteria for the Writing in a New Genre project:
Part I: Your original pieceâŚ
- uses one of the genres from the list provided or one we agreed on.
- follows the conventions and formatting of your chosen genre that you explored and listed in your Artistâs Statement (Part II).
- Incorporates information from the research done for your reflective annotated bibliography and gives appropriate credit in order to avoid plagiarism.
Part II: Your artistâs statementâŚ
- is thoughtfully written and follows the assignment guidelines.
- clearly and convincingly explains why the genre you plan to compose in makes sense for the audience you have chosen to address.
- describes the before, during, and after of your process in adequate detail
So, to recap, in Unit 3, you will:Â
- Write about the research you did in Unit 2
- Address the audience you think needs to know what you learned in Unit 2 (just the most important parts)
- Write in the genre that you think will best reach that audience
- Write a one-page Artistâs Statement that explains your process
Resources for the Unit 3 New Genre Assignment
For Inspiration:
- These Op-Ed/Opinion/Editorial Columns:
- These infographics and pieces of graphic journalism:
- Infographic: “Sea Levels Rise”
- “40 of the Best Infographics to Inspire You” (Includes GMO Infographic We Went Over in Class)
- Graphic Journalism: “The Untold Story of Sushi in America”
- Graphic Journalism: “A Climate Change Guide for Kids”
- These Instagram Carousels:
- These listicles:
- “Simple Rules to Eating Healthy”
- “15 Surprising Facts About Winter Weather”
- â9 questions you were too embarrassed to ask about Syriaâ
- “6 questions to ask that will make caring for older relatives much easier”
- “10 Things You Didn’t Know about Alcatraz” (Also explore the rest of this website, which is full of listicles!)
- These YouTube Videos:
- These Podcasts:
- These X (Twitter) Threads:
- These TikToks:
Student Example:
- Veganism (Instagram Carousel)
- Sex Trafficking (Infographic)
- Semiconductors are the New Oil:Â Why Taiwan is Worth Fighting For (TED Talk-Style Audio)
- Black Holes (X/Twitter Thread)
- Violence Occurs When There Is Silence (Opinon/Op-Ed)
- Chinaâs Game of Spies (Podcast)
Helpful Guides:
- ON WRITING OPINION/OP-ED/EDITORIAL PIECES: “How to Write an Editorial”
- ON LISTICLES: “7 Tips for Writing a Great Listicle”
- ON MAKING PODCASTS: “Making a Podcast that Matters: A Guide with 21 Examples from Students”
- ON FREE AUDIO-EDITING SOFTWARES:Â “Best Audio Editor of 2023”
- ON USING AUDACITY TO MAKE PODCASTS: “How to Record and Edit a Podcast in Audacity”
- ON USING CANVA FREE DESIGN SOFTWARE:Â “Canva for Beginners”
- ON MAKING VIDEOS WITH CANVA:Â “How to Create Videos”
- ON MAKING VIDEOS WITH VIMEO:Â “Tutorial for Beginners”
More Resources for Creating Multi-Modal Texts:
Sound:Â
- Free music:Â https://www.purple-planet.com/
- Free sound effects:Â http://soundbible.com/free-sound-effects-1.html
- Audio creator/editor:Â Â https://www.audacityteam.org/Â [easy to use with a full range of tools, lots of videos about how to use it]
- Hereâs a review about free audio editing software https://www.techradar.com/news/the-best- free-audio-editor
Graphics:
- https://piktochart.com/Â The free version has a 40MB image upload limit.
- Online comic maker:Â https://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
- Stock videos (and photos):Â https://www.pexels.com
- Illustrations you can manipulate:Â https://undraw.co/illustrations
- Copyright safe images (photos, clip art, etc):Â https://search.creativecommons.org/