Unit 3: Multimodal Remix 

This assignment asks you all to re-think, or re-envision, one of the assignments you have written previously in the semester and to present it in a totally new genre, perhaps changing modes. For example, a revision that goes from a written essay to an audio podcast, website, graphic, video essay, rap album, or mixed modal. This assignment builds on the generic, rhetorical and audience awareness that students have worked on all semester long, asking them to consider what discourse community they are trying to reach and, not only what diction, but also what mode of delivery would be best for delivering that message. This “translation” is key to transfer, one of the core learning outcomes of this course. If students can take a message and transform it for different audiences and media, then they are well on their way to being able to transfer writing skills across fields, disciplines and discourse communities.

You could:

• Create a presentation using PPT/Prezi with a specific audience in mind
• Create a series of three or four social media posts (Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/etc.). You must include at least two images.
• Design a poster for an organization somehow related to your topic that could be put up around campus
• Design a flyer that the organization could hand out to students
• An on-video interview with someone who is somehow relevant to your topic/thesis

Remember, what is important is that you are thinking about genre and audience and translating your essay into a genre/mode that is somehow better for your intended audience – that can be a different audience from the one you wrote the essay for. These projects should last about 5 minutes and should be accompanied by a 500-800-word reflection that you will turn in to me before you leave. In that reflection, you should be writing about the concepts we’ve discussed in the course: rhetorical situation, genre, audience, purpose, constraints, etc. Find questions for the reflection below. 

Questions for “Essay” 3 Reflection:

• Who was the audience for this essay? What did you consider about them as you translated your essay from its written form into this multimodal version?
• What are the weaknesses of the written essay genre for this audience? What are the strengths of this new multimodal genre?
• Was it difficult to translate the essay from its written form into this new multimodal version? Why/why not? Reflect on the process of translation.

Scaffolding

Day One: Introduce idea of multimodality, “All Writing is Multimodal.” Give examples of text, video, artwork, etc and point out all the modes at play.

HW: Brainstorm ideas for both of the papers you’ve written and be sure to consider the audiences. Which would get more out of a multimodal translation?

Day Two: Write: Fold in the idea of discourse communities – what sorts of genres would be available to you within the discourse community of your audience? What sorts of things would you emphasize? Begin to draft scripts and map out ideas.

HW: Draft of script/text for multimodal project. Must convey main points and key evidence from essay.

Day Three: Peer Review.

HW: “Difficulty” paper

Day Four: Plan of Revision &

HW: Final Draft

Day Five/Six: Watch presentations and ask at least 1 question per class period.

Unit 2 – Research as Discovery

Formal Requirements:

• 1250-1800 words (paper + annotated bib). Typed, double-spaced, 12-pt Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins.
• You may NOT use the second person (you) in your analysis.
• Must have quotes, paraphrases, and summaries with citations from relevant research sources.

Instructions:

Essay 3 will be a written Proposal, a Research Paper, as well as an Annotated Bibliography. Before you begin detailed research, you need to come up with a real-world, arguable research problem approved by your instructor, so writing this proposal will help you plan your project and articulate your potential arguments. The real-world, arguable problem for Paper 3 must come from your current or planned City Tech major or a potential career after graduation. The paper must include:

Introduction: Write an intro for the Research Proposal emphasizing your reasons for writing about your chosen topic and the importance of the issue to your future career.

1. Hook: Remember to use a little pathos to hook the reader. Snag your reader’s interest with vivid, concrete language, with human interest. Be subtle but be interesting.
2. Development: Discuss the problem in your future career with reference to discourse communities and include some audience analysis (Consider: Who is your audience/opposition? Walk in their shoes for a while and try to determine why they think like they do, and what are the best, most compelling arguments for their position. What about your argument for change, for a new perspective, scares them the most? Now that you have become them, have understood their fears and resistance, what would be the most persuasive ways to overcome their fears and resistance?) Transition to your thesis statement at the end of this paragraph and see if you don’t have a great suspended, or climactic paragraph.
3. Thesis Statement (one sentence): A thesis statement is one sentence, and always an opinion. In this case it’s an arguable position on a controversial topic. You may end up taking a fairly moderate position on the topic, but your thesis is still specific. (Example: While many think political parties serve to organize the administration of government, mainstream parties in America have polarized the nation by building mistrust among lawmakers and stifling other potential voices in our democratic republic.)

Background/History of the subject: Trace a brief history of your controversy and bring the reader up to date on where the issue stands today. Do this section in chronological order, briefly hitting major landmarks from the beginning of the controversy until its current state. You should do basic research online (on the web and/or through the library website) to get this information. Direct quotations for basic history aren’t necessary, but any paraphrase or summary of sources MUST BE CITED using the MLA format.

Proofs: Based on your preliminary research, discuss what you want to prove {2 thesis points (not including the counterargument in your refutation)} as your paragraph topics. Use complete topic sentences to label each proof and include any quotes/paraphrases/summaries from your sources that you will cite as evidence. MLA CITATIONS REQUIRED. Explain how this evidence will support your proposed thesis and what kinds of other evidence you will need to fully develop the argument.

1. Topic sentence about thesis point #1.
2. Evidence, ideally paraphrased, MLA cited in parentheses.
3. Explanation how this evidence addresses your point and relates to the further research needed.
4. Evidence, ideally paraphrased, MLA cited in parentheses.
5. Explanation how this evidence addresses your point and relates to the further research needed.
6. Topic sentence about thesis point #2.
7. Evidence, ideally paraphrased, MLA cited in parentheses.
8. Explanation how this evidence addresses your point and relates to the further research needed.
9. Evidence, ideally paraphrased, MLA cited in parentheses.
10. Explanation how this evidence addresses your point and relates to the further research needed.

Refutation: While some elements of refutation should be covered in your Proofs, this paragraph will focus on naming and then refuting (disproving) any counterargument unaddressed or you have yet to overcome. The opposing view should already appear as part of your thesis, but the refutation should give the specific attack(s) that the opposing view would make against your thesis claim. Based on preliminary research, discuss these possible counterarguments and any evidence you have for refutation. CITE EVIDENCE.

Conclusion: Sum up what you’ve already proven about your topic and what still needs to be proved. Bear in mind that a conclusion is future-oriented, gives the reader a directive about the future, about why this topic is important and deserves further research. If possible, employ subtle yet effective pathos here, and vivid, concrete language.

Scaffolding

Day One: Library Visit. With Librarian, introduce notion of a research question. Give students many examples and encourage them to get into google/search engine wormholes within the constraints of the assignment and using library resources.

HW: Bring in working thesis and two sources.

Day Two: Thesis workshop. As a class, go over the features of an effective thesis statement, and put them in groups of 3-4 to comment on each other’s theses.

HW: Refine question and do more research. Reflect on one way you’d change how you approach the thesis-building process.

Day Three: Background paragraph & Refutation paragraph. Read samples and practice using preliminary research.

HW: Draft proposal, including outlined body paragraphs

Dav Four: Mini Peer Review for proposals.

HW: “Difficulty paper”

Day Five: Incorporating evidence and evaluating sources. Read sample annotated bibliographies and practice as a group in class.

HW: Evaluate three sources.

Day Six: Peer Review of Draft of Proposal + Anno Bib & Plan for Revision

HW: Put it all together and write out your body paragraphs. Final Draft due next class.

Day Seven: Turn in and reflect on process overall in class.

Unit #1: Rhetoric, Genre, Discourse

In this second unit, you will draw on what you have learned about the concept of discourse communities, apply it to your life experience, and define one community you belong to according to Swales’ six criteria. You will also choose an issue facing a discourse community you belong too and take a position on that issue.

Related readings:

• John Swales: “The Concept of Discourse Community”
• Laura Bolin Carroll: “Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps Towards Rhetorical Analysis”
• Anthony Bourdain, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This”
• Excerpt, Ta-Nehisi Coates, “My President Was Black”
• Colton Wooten, “The Florida Shuffle”

Rhetorical Situation, or Your Jumping Off Point for Writing: 

How do discourse communities make claims that situate them in relation to society, and to what extent are those claims effective? How does a special interest group or a cultural minority, professional association, or demographic group sway political leaders or influence elections, policies, or laws? (Some examples could include labor unions, LGBT groups, cultural minorities, etc.) This analytical project involves a deep analysis of the rhetorical components of a text or artifact, helping you define links between rhetorical situations, discourse communities, and genre. In particular, you’ll analyze how authors respond to rhetorical situations using research, appeals, and rhetorical moves to effectively appeal to their audiences. You’ll also have the opportunity to perform your own primary source fieldwork to develop your own definition of your discourse community and how it functions in the world, with specific attention to prevalent genres and modes of communication.

Your Task:

 In this assignment, you’ll 1) identify a discourse community that you want to explore and write about your relation to it, 2) plan and conduct an interview with an elder/expert/member of the DC that will aid in your descriptive analysis of your DC, and 3) analyze a single text or cultural artifact of that discourse community and the genre as a whole. You will ultimately produce a thoughtfully written report of 1,200 – 2,000 words with an accompanying reflection (1-2 pages) on how your analytical approach helped you make specific conscious choices about your writing process based on genre, rhetorical situation, research, audience, and relationship with the discourse community in question.

I think it is useful to break the assignment into its chief components (N.B. the fourth is the final essay assignment):

1. A descriptive look at your understanding of how the group functions as a discourse community, i.e. what are its “common public goals” and “mechanisms of intercommunication”? (If you break down the DC into its component parts, and think about your relationship to it, this should be fairly.)
2. Plan, prepare for, and conduct an interview with a member/elder/expert from your community and write a report of the key takeaways and insights from the interview.
3. An analysis of a single text or artifact of that discourse community, like an article or painting or film. (The key here is to think about how the DC uses its specific lexicon and “mechanisms of intercommunication” to meet its “common public goals” regarding a particular topic.)
4. Ultimately, you will put steps 1-3 together into a descriptive report of your discourse community and one prominent genre within it. This should be 1,200-2,000 words and be accompanied by a 1-2-page reflection.

TIMELINE

Wed 10/16                                         Description of DC Draft (1-3 pages)

• Pick a discourse community: either a cultural group, religious group, political group, advocacy group, nonprofit organization, creative community, or other group linked by commonalities, interests, language, and literacy. Explain who and what this discourse community is as you understand it – in a paragraph or two – and your relation to it. Why is it interesting to you?
• Then, choose a text or cultural artifact to analyze. You should use the analytical criteria we define in class. What is their audience, how are they establishing credibility, using what types of rhetorical moves, ethos/pathos/logos, or other appeals, language, and/or visual rhetoric?

Mon 10/23                                         Report of Field Research Notes

• Do an ethnography, field research visit, and/or interview with a member of the community. First, brainstorm a list of questions and then go into this community, and conduct a 30-60 minute interview, exploration, or visit into this group.
• Record, transcribe, or take detailed notes during your interview and then type up a 2-3 page report of the research notes you captured in this community. Introduce your notes with a one-page letter to me. What happened? What were your impressions? How will you use this firsthand research in your article?

Mon 10/28                                         Working Draft of Report (2 printed)

• Write a Working Draft of your report. Define your discourse community and a prominent genre within it, using an integrated combination of firsthand research and secondary sources. Use your analysis of the mentor text to help you draft your argument – what moves does it use, and how are those specific to your discourse community?

Wed 10/30                                         Peer Review letter (>2 pages printed, 2 copies)

• Peer Review letter to partner due, using a technique called descriptive outlining.

Mon 11/11                                         Final Draft Due (1 via BB + 1 Hard Copy)

• Including a 2-page Reflection Cover Letter explaining why and how you made the choices that you made for your target audience, using your mentor text, and for the publication of your choice.

UNIT 3: Writing in a New Genre (adapted from T. Clarke’s sample)

In Unit 3, you will be using your research from Unit 2 to compose a document/artifact in a new genre. You might want to write a declaration, a review, a manifesto, a rulebook, a magazine article (from a particular publication), a comic book, a children’s book, short story, a video essay. Perhaps you want to create a multigenre piece that mixes multiple genres in the same document, or a multimedia piece with a written component. I hope you get the sense that the possibilities are endless; you have multiple publishing options for your Unit 3 genre. Hint: Think about your audience and the best way to communicate with them. In my example, my audience would be soccer fans, and therefore I might choose a genre that soccer fans are familiar with, like the match review, or tactical analysis. The same would be true for whatever issue/community you choose.

The possibilities are virtually endless. The caveats are:

1. You must have a rhetorical understanding of the genre you choose.

2. You must make use of the research you did in Unit 2.

3. You cannot simply write an “article.” You’ll need to be specific, and the genre must contain words. It would help you to have a specific example (or model) of the genre in which you choose to write. You will have written about this genre, in some form, so use the knowledge you already have, and the knowledge you will gain from further research, to craft the best version of a document in the genre you’ve chosen. If you are choosing to do something say in video or song, you must transcribe the words. The final word count for this will be 1500 words, at least.

Some ways you might want to get started:

● Question your intent. Think, “What do I have to say? Why do I care about this topic? What is the best genre for me to communicate what I have to say?”

● Choose a genre you like and that you think best fits your intent. If you decide for instance that you want to talk about bodegas, or your bodega specifically, perhaps an exposé is best.

● The point here is, the topic and genre should gel.

Outline of Tasks:

1. Proposal. Consider again how your research and genre analysis in Unit 2 has addressed/influenced your line of questioning. What do you want to say? Why is your topic important to you and to the community at large? Which genre is best suited to communicating your message? Type your proposal.

2. Outline with sources chosen and genre mentor text (model or example of the genre you would like to compose in). Once you’ve narrowed your focus/have chosen your genre, outline your argument. How will you support your general claim? What kind of sources would strengthen your argument? Which genre will serve as your mentor text?

3. Rough draft. Begin writing. Bring in research and the methodological knowledge you’ve gained from our investigation into genre and rhetoric. Look to your source/mentor text for ideas about structure. Bring two (2) copies of your rough draft to class to participate in the peer writing-workshop.

4. Based on feedback on your rough draft, conduct further research, if necessary, to support your

claims/vision. Incorporate reflection and feedback in order to improve the final product.

5. Final draft.

6. Reflection. Your reflective letter should be at least 500 words.

ENG1101 – Unit 2: Genre Research Project  (adapted from T. Clarke’s sample)

In this assignment, we will be researching one topic from a multi-genre perspective. We will be taking what we’ve learned about writing situations and the audience/purpose/constraints of a given text and using them to deduce the conventions that make up the GENRE of a given text. When we think of genres, it is useful to think of the definition of genre as a category; now we want to be able to determine what the criteria are that make different text fit into the same categories. These are what we’ll call the conventions of the genre.

In “Navigating Genres,” Kerry Dirk writes that the genre of country music conventionally includes songs about lost love, dogs, and pickup trucks. Perhaps more relatably, we all interact (or used to, at least) with the genre of subway announcements.

1. What are the conventions and constraints of a subway announcement? What is another way that the information communicated in those announcements might be communicated? Which genre works best, and why?

In order to build out this kind of genre awareness, I’ll be asking you to think about a topic or skill or hobby that you are expert, or at least interested, in. Within that realm, what is an event or issue that is of interest to you?

For instance, I am a soccer fan, and if I were to complete this assignment, I might choose the dramatic loss of Arsenal FC to FC Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League Final as my topic. For that event, there are any number of places to begin. First, I might look up a good highlight video. There are very specific aspects of a past match to include in such a video – good passes, tackles, chances, goals, runs of play, pivotal swings of momentum, etc. I would break down how that video is follows/breaks the conventions of a good highlight video. Then, I would look for another way to interact with that event – say, an in depth post-match conference with one of the managers. I’d watch the Arsenal manager detail how his team came heart-stoppingly close to winning the most elite trophy in the footballing world, and think about how a post-match interview has different conventions than a highlight video, and communicates different information. Last, I might choose to read a soccer analyst’s longform written tactical analysis of the match. For this essay, I would define what constitutes each genre, and then go on to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each in comparison with the others.

Stage 1: Research Question + Annotated Bibliography (Due XX/XX)

This should be something you care about, something you’ve always wondered about—something that will keep you engaged, as you’ll be continuing this line of inquiry in Unit

3 as well. (In my example, my Research Question would be how did Arsenal lose in the UCL final in 2006?) Complete the Formulating Your Research Question Worksheet and have your question approved by me. If you change your question, your new question must be approved.

With that question, you will then research, gather information on, and analyze four (4) sources consisting of at least three (3) different genres. Complete an Annotated Bibliography for your sources.

Stage 2: Rough Draft (Due XX/XX)

Write the rough draft of your report. The best way to go about this is to write the report for each source (you will have already completed this step using the guide outlined in the “Rhetorical Analysis of Sources Plan”), then write the introduction and conclusion. Remember that format and appearance count, so give yourself time to proofread and make it look great! Include a Works Cited page of your sources. Bring two (2) copies of your rough draft to class to participate in the peer writing-workshop.

Stage 3: Final Draft (after Peer/Professor Feedback, due XX/XX)

Prepare the final draft of your report. Include a Works Cited page of your sources. The entire report consisting of source analysis, introduction, and conclusion, and excluding the Works Cited page, should be at least 1800 words.

Stage 4: Reflection (due XX/XX)

Write a reflective letter about the process. Consider: What did I learn from this process? About my own process of thought? About my reading process? My writing process? How can I apply what I have learned to other contexts? Your reflective letter should be at least 500 words.

Grading:

1. Is your document readable and informative? Does it teach us about what you’ve learned, as it relates to question? Does it teach us, not only about the content of the sources you’ve chosen, but also the rhetorical situation surrounding those sources? In other words, is it a “good” source? Good for whom? Why?

2. Did you do solid research here? One of the main goals of the assignment is to learn something new about your topic AND to help you learn to find information on your own, to be applied to future situations. If you simply choose the first three options on Google, that’s not doing enough, and your topic will most likely not be as nuanced as it could be.

3. Did you find sources in at least three (3) different genres? Did the genres you chose “gel” with the content – that is, did the genres you chose make sense for the goals of both Units 2 and 3?

4. Your report must look great and must be organized in a way that makes sense to the reader you have in mind (and to me!).

5. Is your language appropriate to the audience you have in mind? No matter how you chose to write it, the type of language you use (how it is written) must be consistent and must be appropriate to your audience. You should be able to explain with a good line of reasoning why you chose the language you chose.

6. Cite your sources and include a Works Cited page.

Essay #1: Literacy Narrative

In this unit, we have read several examples of literacy narratives. In “Mother Tongue,” we read about the titular mother’s “broken English” and how that, along with several pivotal educational experiences, made Amy Tan the writer she is. In “All Writing is Autobiography,” Donald Murray talked about the different parts of himself he brings into his different writing projects. These were both literacy narratives, which are stories writers tell about their relationship to reading and writing.

In this unit’s writing assignment, you will write a response to the question “What is literacy?” in a way that is personal, meaningful, and considered. The question does not ask “what is the definition of literacy?” but rather “what does literacy mean to you?” In this essay, you will relate experiences or events that have been important in shaping the kind of writer and reader you have become, or experiences that illuminate the role of literacy in your life. The purpose of the assignment is to explore this experience in order to gain insight into who you are as a writer and reader, and to examine the role literacy plays into your life. In the end, you will have linked your participation in this class to the rest of your experiences with writing in your life.

In preparation for this assignment, you have read two examples of literacy narratives — Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” and Donald Murray’s “All Writing is Autobiography” — you will read a third sample student literacy narrative. Look to them for guidance.

If you feel stuck, think and write about the following prompts:

• What is your current attitude toward reading/writing?
• What are your beliefs about yourself as a reader/writer?
• What happened in the past to make you have that attitude or those beliefs?
• What experiences were most significant?

Also, consider the following areas of experience you might explore:

• your family’s attitude toward reading/writing
• your own reading/writing experiences in and out of school
• what you remember about learning to read/write
• what successes or failures you have had connected to reading/writing
• a particular book that had an impact on you
• your reading/writing strengths
• your reading/writing weaknesses.

Your essays will be >750 words (approx. 4 pages) in length, double-spaced in a normal 12-pt font (Cambria, Baskerville, Garamond, Times, etc.), with 1” margins all around. You should write your name and course details in the header, and page numbers in the footer. Your paper should have a title, an introduction ending in a thesis statement (an answer to the central question of the prompt), several body paragraphs that utilize the Point + Illustration + Explanation model we discussed in class, and a succinct conclusion.

Given the nature of this essay, you should draw from personal experience, and you may use the first-person “I” when doing so. You will bring in two printed copies to our peer review session in class and turn in a final draft electronically and physically by the beginning of class on __________.

Please feel free to stop by my office hours or shoot me an email with any questions.