For this assignment, you will extending your analysis of genre one step further by composing something in a specific genre. You’ve already completed the genre analysis, now it’s time to write within your genre. Ultimately, your goal is to effectively communicate a message or idea using a specific genre with specific conventions. The “message” you choose to communicate is entirely up to you, but think closely about the genre you are writing in, and the type of “message” it typically produces or allows. For example: TV commercials typically have the message of advertising products or convincing you to do/think something specific; personal essays offer life lessons or inspirational messages through descriptions of memories or experiences; political speeches intend to send a message about a candidate's specific qualifications and platforms, etc.
This project, while having only a few minimum requirements, is more broad and requires that you come up with your own subject and visualize what the project itself should look like. You will have a lot of freedom here as to what your project will ultimately look like, so get creative! Think about this project as a way to write something relevant to your interests, something that you will enjoy writing, or that you might find useful in your future academic or professional career. During the last week of class, you will deliver a presentation to the class about your project, discussing the conventions of the genre you chose, how your work fits within these conventions, and reflecting on your process of creating this project.
This project is really whatever you want it to be, so I’m giving you a lot of freedom in how you want to compose/create it!
After you draft some ideas for what you want to create for your project, you will write a one page (single spaced) project proposal that outlines what you will create, how it fits within your genre, and what it will ultimately look like/be comprised of. Since this project is more open-ended, the project proposal is a space for you to tell me exactly what your project will look like, and why you’ve made the decisions you’ve made. We will workshop the proposals in class, and together we will come up with more specific requirements tailored to your project. For the proposal, address the following questions:
Describe your chosen genre. What is it? How is it used/consumed? Why is it important? Think about what you learned through your rhetorical analysis, and reflect on the most important things you uncovered about your genre.
Which genre conventions are crucial to the genre as whole? These will be the conventions that your project should be focused specifically on portraying/capturing.
What will your project look like? Describe the piece of “writing” you will compose for this assignment. Is it textual, visual, oral/auditory, etc? How does it fit within your genre? Be specific and descriptive here. Why have you chosen to represent your genre in this specific way?
How will your project incorporate the crucial genre conventions you described above? Be specific and give examples.
What is the overall message you will be communicating? Why/how is it important to you? How is this message connected to the genre you are exploring? Think closely about what you are trying to achieve through your genre, and how this message will be communicated through your genre’s specific conventions.
Everyone’s project will look different, so there is no definitive page length requirement for this project. However, whatever you create must adequately demonstrate your knowledge of the genre you are writing within, and should convince me that you have purposefully and successfully utilized your genre’s conventions to communicate an important message or idea.
During the last week of class, you will give a 5 minute presentation to the class, reflecting on your process of creating this project and describing/showcasing what you have created. These presentations should be well articulated and thoughtfully put together, and should incorporate some sort of visual element (slideshow, video, etc). I will give you more specific instructions for this part of the project before it is due.
If you feel overwhelmed by the ambiguity of this project and its requirements, don’t worry! We’ll be using the last few weeks of class to dive deep into how to write/compose within genres, and we’ll be doing a lot of brainstorming and in-class writing activities to prepare you for your project. Â
A printed copy of your project proposal is due in class on Tuesday April 5th.
The rough draft is due by 5pm on Tuesday April 19th, and should be posted on your peer review group’s discussion board. This should be a nearly complete draft.
The final draft is due before class on Tuesday April 26th.
Project presentations will be during class on Tuesday April 26th and Thursday April 28th. I will have you sign up for presentations a week in advance, so you know which day you will be presenting.
