English 1121

Paper #2: Call to Action Research Proposal

 

Due Dates:

TBA: Research Memo/Annotated Bibliography

TBA: First Draft

TBA: Final Draft

 

Assignment Overview and Requirements:

 

For this unit, you will focus on inquiry-based research. Your first paper asked that you define and analyze a discourse community that either you’re a part of or that you have seen represented in the stories we have read. Now you are going to write a paper about an issue you’ve identified within a chosen discourse community or in another community that interests you.

 

In short, you are going to identify an issue in a community you’ve chosen to investigate, compile research on that issue, and present that research in a Call To Action.

 

The paper will require a variety of research, until you feel you’ve addressed the question you proposed. You will look at the relationship between your community and certain larger issues or topics that permeate it. This could mean either 1) an issue within the community or 2) the way in which practices or values of your community relate to society in general.

 

The parts of the assignment are as follows:

• Research Memo DUE 

This will be a survey of your sources, essentially a professionalized annotated bibliography. You do not need an argument for this portion of the assignment but you do need to provide and in-depth analysis of each of your sources. This includes a summary of the most important content of the sources, as well as analysis of the rhetorical context and elements of the sources

• Informative Call to Action Due 

In the final portion of the assignment, you will write a “call to action” in which you inform your audience of the issue you chose to investigate. After you have comprehensively described the issue, you will offer research-based assertions as to how your audience can begin to catalyze change surrounding the issue. This portion of the assignment should be 6-8 pages and must make studied use of your research (1500-2000 words).

• Peer Letters and Reflection Due . Just like you did with the Portrait of the Discourse Community Essay.After you have completed the first draft, you will bring in three copies of your essay – one for me, and two for two of your peers. You will share these essays with your group, and, after reading each other’s essays, provide thoughtful, critical feedback. While you should provide suggestions for improvement, you should also consider this an opportunity to take cues from your peers and build a sense of community and solidarity. Note what you think works and what you think could use some work. You will attach a copy of the two peer letters to your final draft.

In addition to the letter you will write a reflection (500 words), after your paper has been graded. In this, you will explain:

1. Why you chose to write the way you wrote
2. What insights you’ve gained from the readings and your peers
3. What you think worked and what you might improve on

English 1121

Paper #3: Call to Action Remix

Due Dates:

Proposal

First Draft

Project Due

In-Class Presentations

 

Assignment Overview and Requirements:

In the last paper, you discovered an issue in the discourse community, and now you are going to take action and get the word out to a specific audience. 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 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

 

Feel free to work on this as a group project!

 

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 an 800-1000 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, etc. Find questions for the reflection below.

 

 

Questions for 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.