Due dates for drafts: 11/15, 11/20, 11/27

Due date for final version: Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Composing in a New Genre, plus Genre Analysis and Reflection

In the conclusion of your Project 2 reflective annotated bibliography, you wrote about What are the most important things you learned? What audience do you think needs to know about it? What is a useful genre to tell that specific group the information learned?

For Project 3, you will create a new text using the information you learned in your research, then write an Genre Analysis and Reflection about your creation and your process. This requires some creativity on your part, and you might need to learn some new skills, like how to make a video or embed images in a post. Both parts are required for Project 3.

Think again about the research you conducted and information you gathered for your reflective annotated bibliography, and think more specifically about which audience would benefit from this information. How would they benefit from learning the information? What would be a good way to convey this information to them–that is, in what genre?

Part 1: Composing a new text

In your new text for Part 1, you will use the research from Project 2 to create your new text. You will quote, paraphrase, summarize, etc, as it fits the genre you choose (if your genre doesn’t use citations, you can include the citations separately). Remember that even though we call it a text, it might include things that are not words.

Examples of genres include: a TED talk or the script for a TED talk; a social media thread (approximately 10 parts to the thread); an interview (you’ll need to choose the medium for the interview, eg video, radio, written); a podcast or podcast script; a TikTok video or other video (but think carefully about what the genre is!); a commercial or commercial script; an infographic; a listicle; a zine; a poster; an advertisement; a letter; a multimedia blog post (your example can be all written or a mixture of text and another medium such as photograph, gif, graph, or video, etc); a song or song lyrics; a poem or short story or short graphic story; or a proposal for any of the above.

Part 2: Genre Analysis and Reflection

Write a statement, approximately 600-900 words, in which you address the following:

What did you create?

  • Context:
    • Why are you interested in this topic and what did you learn about it?
    • Summarize in a paragraph or two the information you want your new composition to convey.
    • Refer specifically to information you learned from each of your sources, either by quoting or paraphrasing. Be sure it’s clear which source the information came from whether you’re using their exact language or not by using parenthetical citations.
  • Rhetorical Situation and Related Choices:
    • What was your purpose for making this project?
    • Who is the specific audience you want to direct this information to and why?
    • What assumptions, expectations, and/or concerns might they have about the subject?
    • What appeals did you decide to use (which, of course, may have changed later): facts (logos), emotion (pathos), the credibility of you or someone you talk about (ethos)?
    • What tone and diction did you use to reach your audience? For example, if you’re trying to convey information to other students in your major, you might want to quote from and name your sources. If you want to convey this information to your band members, you might not need to be as formal–in fact, they might tune out if you quote from research or use technical language.
    • Examples of specific audiences include: other students in your major at City Tech; students in that majors in general; students in a different major; college administration; people with a particular illness; a client for a particular project; your boss; your employees; investors; elementary school students; your family; city planners; the NY Department of Health–you get the idea!
  • Genre Considerations:
    • Why did you chose the genre you did?
    • What made you think that genre would be a good one for your audience?
    • Discuss at least 3 features of the genre that made it a good choice for your audience.
  • Process:
    • How did you create your new text?
    • What changes did you make from initial idea to the finished version?
    • What new skills did you need to learn? Who/where did you turn to for help?

A Reflection

  • Now that it’s done, what went well?
  • What didn’t go as well?
  • Are there any changes you would make?
  • What, given all the time and money and expertise in the world, would you have done differently?
  • How will you use your new skills (research, writing, technology, media, etc) in the future–in life, in your major, in your career?

How will this be graded?

  • Content: Your project, through the new text and the artist statement, has all the components listed above, including the information you want to share from your annotated bibliography, the audience you want to reach, your genre analysis, and is approximately 600-900 words.
  • Genre: I am not looking to evaluate how good you are at writing a song or making a video. Instead, I’m looking to see that your new text follows the conventions and formatting and has the features of that genre, and is appropriate for your chosen audience. Your artist statement accurately identifies how the genre is appropriate.
  • Presentation: Your project is written in a way that someone else can understand what you want your audience to learn and where you learned that information. You use formatting and organization to help your readers make sense of your writing.

Remember that you will reflect on and revise this and all projects further for the final reflection and portfolio.

Acknowledgments: This project uses ideas and language from the Unit 3 assignments in the ENG 1101 Model Course, developed by Carrie Hall and Jackie Blain, and the ENG 1101 Core Books Model Course, developed by Ruth Garcia and Suzanne Miller.