What do you want to change on your campus or in your community?
Who do you need to convince? How can you reach them through your writing? How can you reach them through a primarily visual, audio, or performative media? How can A-State students initiate the changes they want to see on their campus, in their community, and in the world, at large? The third unit combines the skills and strategies from the first two units by providing you the opportunity to perform as a writer for audiences beyond the classroom. Similar to the first unit, you will look inward, choosing an issue of importance to you on campus or in your community about which you want to make an impact. Then, building on the second unit, you will look beyond yourself to other voices and outside texts, investigating what has already been said and done about this issue. In a culmination of the preceding units, you will compose two texts for two audiences in two different. One text that you create should depend primarily upon written words, and the other should depend primarily upon visual, audio, or performative media. Carefully choose genres that you believe will best meet the needs of your purpose and audiences and will be the most persuasive to them based upon what you know about the interrelatedness of genres, audience, and purpose. The Assignment in Short Research an issue of importance to you that pertains to the campus or community; Compose two texts recognizing your own unique skill-set and choosing the genres, media, and conventions that have the best chance of persuading two distinct and different audiences Developing, Planning, and Composing Your Projects Your instructor will help you pinpoint issues of interest through readings and in-class activities. Then, you will research your topic, recognizing that different topics will necessitate different kinds of research. For example, a student interested in changing the timeline for rushing fraternities and sororities may want to start her research by contacting the current Director of Greek Life, while a student who wants to raise awareness on campus about the waste accumulated by our use of disposable straws will likely want to start online or with the university’s databases. Once you have researched your topic and have a clear understanding of what has and hasn’t been done about this issue and what you think should be done, you can consider your purpose: Is your purpose to raise awareness? Add new curriculum or programming? Change current policy or practice? And, who are you looking to convince? Students? A particular group of students? Professors? The administration? The community? Local business owners? How will you best persuade your audiences? Once you’ve decided whom you’re trying to convince of what, this last question should guide your choices regarding how. What genres and media are most likely to be seen by your audiences? In what genres and media might your argument be most convincing? In what genres are you most proficient? As you narrow your project ideas, you may want to consider some of the following options: Newspaper article, Letter to the Editor, or an op-ed with an intended publication venue; Blog post or social media campaign; Oral presentation (conference style, to be presented at FYC Colloquium); Essay, scholarly article, or creative work; Brochure, manual, poster campaign, or business proposal; Mini-documentary or PSA commercial; Syllabus for a course on your topic or a series of resources and lesson plans; Digital representation, such as videos, originally coded web pages, mobile apps, etc. As you will see, composing two different projects aimed at persuading two different demographic groups will allow you to work concurrently within two different rhetorical situations.