Come to Class Ready to Discuss the Stakeholders and Their Stake in the Issue

Week 4/Day 8– Thursday, September 14th

Homework Due

Critically read Eli Saslow’s article “Food Stamps Put Rhode Island Town on Monthly Boom-and Bust Cycle” in the Food reader. After reading it:
Make a list of the stakeholders you believe have a stake in the issue, based on our definition of the term during class, and explain what their stake is – that is, what they have to gain or lose in the context of the issue.
Come to class ready to discuss the stakeholders and their stake in the issue.
Critically read about “writing to solve problems” in pp. 154-155 of your JTC.
Print a copy of the A2 assignment on Canvas>Files>Assignment Sheets. (Amend this depending on where you post documents on Canvas). Print out the assignment sheet, critically read and annotate it, and bring questions to class.

Spend some time looking through the Food Reader. Jot down a few topics that potentially interest you. Skim articles that are about that particular topic. Closely read at least one. Brainstorm stakeholders in the issue that’s discussed in that article and think through what they have to gain/lose in the context of the issue. From your list of stakeholders and what they have to gain/lose, begin brainstorming specific aspects of the issue that you want to focus on. What problems are associated with this issue? What possible solutions could help solve that problem? Hold onto this document. You will add to it in the coming days.

Lesson Objectives

Make connections between stakeholders and potential audiences;
Consider the important link between purpose and audience when writing.
Practice analyzing and appealing to a specific audience

Prep

Re-read the “Food Stamps…” article and be sure you have drafted your own list of potential stakeholders for the issue. Review the assigned readings in JTC to familiarize yourself with the info your students read for homework. Review the Assignment 2, and familiarize yourself with the finer points of the assignment. Be prepared to address any questions that students have.

Materials

WTL Questions Overhead/Slide
Materials for the “practicing problem-solving” activity (varies, depending on your use of technology. See below for more info.)
Assignment 2 (either a hard copy or a digital one to project.)
Overhead with Letter Writing Activity

Lead-In

Today’s class focuses on the important link between purpose and audience in writing rhetorically. In a problem-solving proposal, as students will be doing for A2, it’s important for them to understand the way the audience will shape the proposed solution (since the solution they propose must be logical and able to be implemented by their stakeholder audience.) The purpose of today’s lesson is to help students understand that an audience cannot be chosen without also thinking of the purpose of the writing, since one will heavily influence the other.

ACTIVITIES

Attendance (1 minute)

Transition: Last time you turned in A1 and we began talking and thinking about stakeholders, as well as considering some important concepts such as exigency and synthesis. To further explore stakeholders, you read “Food Stamps…” for homework and thought about the stakeholders who have an interest in the issue. We’re going to start today by doing a bit of writing about the things you read for today.

WTL: Identifying Stakeholders and Emerging Issues (10-15 minutes)

Based on your reading of the “Food Stamps…” article, identify two stakeholders in the issue and explain what their stake in the issue is and why (i.e., what they have to gain and/or lose in the context of the issue and why).
Be sure to be clear, thorough, and specific (since part of your purpose here is to demonstrate your close and critical reading of the text).

After students are done writing, lead a brief discussion of the students’ responses. What stakeholders did they identify? What is their stake in the issue?

(As you discuss the stakeholders, be sure to eventually lead students to this question): Of the many groups who have a stake in the issue, which stakeholder(s) seems to be the audience for the article? How do you know?

Help students understand that writers have to carefully consider stakeholders when writing about issues but they must also choose an audience that makes sense for their purpose, which is what we’ll focus on today. Explain that a major focus of today’s lesson is on purpose and its relationship to audience.

Ask: What is the author’s purpose with the food stamps article? And how does that relate to the audience for the article?
Help students see that many stakeholders care about the issue, but not all have the power to implement change and solve the problem described in the article. Given that the author published in The Washington Post, at least some of his audience are likely policymakers who have the power to bring about change and potentially help solve the problem.

Practice Choosing an Audience for a Specific Purpose (20-25 minutes)

Transition: Because our purpose with A2 is identifying and explaining a problem and offering a solution, we have to make sure that we choose an audience who is logical for the purpose. After all, proposing a solution to an audience who has no power to implement that solution isn’t logical and could frustrate an audience and keep you from achieving your purpose. In order to better understand how important it is to consider purpose and audience simultaneously, we’re going to spend some time practicing this skill.

Tip: Before showing the video and “diving in” to the activity, preview the entire activity by explaining what will happen and what they’ll do after watching the video.

Explain to your students that you’re first going to watch a brief video to learn about an exigent problem in our world, then:

Your purpose with this activity is to come up with a creative solution to the problem.
Work with your group members to choose an audience to “pitch” your solution to. Be sure your audience is logical for your purpose. Does this audience have the power and resources to implement this solution?
Explain why this issue is exigent for the audience. In other words, why is this issue urgent or timely for this particular stakeholder? Why should they care? What’s their stake in the issue?
At the end of class your group will turn in:
An explanation of your solution to the problem;
Which audience you chose to direct your ideas towards and why they’re a logical audience, given your purpose;
An explanation of why this issue is exigent for the audience.

Tip: The video you use for this activity can vary widely. One that is fun and funny (but still gets the point of the activity across) is from The Onion, “Bratz Dolls May Give Young Girls Unrealistic Expectations of Head Size” (a quick Google search will find the video for you). Other videos from The Onion could work, also, as could a number of their print articles. If you don’t feel comfortable showing videos or can’t show videos due to technology limitations in your classroom, there are many print articles – both serious and silly – that could work well for this activity, too. Alternatively, you could show a video (or have students read a short article) about a more serious problem related to food or American culture or politics. Whatever video or article you choose, keep in mind: it should be relatively short (a video should be under 5 minutes, an article only a page or two) and it should discuss a problem that students can brainstorm a solution to in their groups.

Watch the video (or read the article) and give students some time to think creatively to solve the problem. As students work, move around the room listening in to their solutions and the audience they’ve chosen. Be sure to help them understand that the stakeholder audience must be logical for the purpose and have the power to implement the solution.

Tip: The critical thinking required for this activity may be harder for students than you initially expect. Students tend to understand the concept of stakeholders fairly quickly, but when asked to think about stakeholders combined with thinking about their ability to implement a proposed solution can sometimes “stump” students. If you find students aren’t making the connections, help guide them to think about potentially changing their solution OR changing the audience they’re “pitching” it to.

For example, if using the clip about the Bratz dolls, a group may want to solve the problem by shrinking the heads of the Bratz dolls to be in better proportion to their bodies and want to “pitch” that solution to an audience of parents. Help them understand that parents don’t have the power to implement that change (meaning the purpose doesn’t match the audience) and lead them to understanding that the manufacturers of the Bratz dolls would be a better audience for that solution. Alternatively, that group could maintain the audience of parents and think of a different solution, such as forming an advocacy group that petitions the company to change the dolls.

Save some time at the end to hear a few ideas (depending on what problem you want to solve, this can be hilarious!) but make sure that you do a “big picture” connection before showing the homework for next time. Make the point that we’re practicing serious skills. Purpose and audience are at the top of our hierarchy of rhetorical concerns: if the purpose and audience don’t fit together logically, everything else – development, organization, etc. – suffers. It’s vital to think of them together and make sure the audience is logical for the purpose.

WTL: Practice Analyzing and Appealing to an Audience (15 minutes)

Transition: You have just spent some time practicing identifying a logical audience that makes sense for a specific purpose. However, it is equally important to consider how you will appeal to this specific audience in your writing. We will explore this concept much more in the next class, but let’s begin by considering how we often intuitively appeal to specific audiences in our own lives.

This is a fun writing activity that gives students the chance to consider analyzing and appealing to their audience. Put up a slide/overhead with the following info.

Tip: It’s a good idea to give your students the following info in “chunks,” rather than giving it to them all at once. For example, give them the scenario and then give them a few minutes to analyze their audience before having them write the letter. This way, students won’t skip the audience analysis part (which is important to solidifying the concepts from the lesson!)

You really, really need $50. Right now. All your friends are broke like you, your parents are sick of sending you money, and you don’t get paid at work for about a week. You’ve been learning a lot about appealing to an audience in your CO150 class and you’ve decided your best course of action is to try to convince one of your college professors to give you the money.
First, choose your audience (i.e., decide which of your professors you’re going to try to get $50 from.)
Then, ANALYZE the audience based on the notes you just took:
Who is your audience?
What level of information do they have about the subject? (Does your professor know what it’s like to be a broke student? Why or why not?)
What does your professor value?
Now, write a letter to that professor. Craft your appeals to logos, ethos, and pathos based on your audience analysis, the purpose of your writing, and the context in which you’re writing.
Your letter should explain the problem (why do you need $50?), explain why it’s exigent (why does this need to be addressed NOW?), and propose a solution to the problem. Explain the solution, why it’s beneficial, and what the audience gets from it.

Some students might finish this in the time offered; others will need to complete this as homework. Tell your students this, and remind them to hold onto it, as they’ll be using it for an activity and collecting it for the next class.

Transition: We’ve spent the last two classes introducing some big ideas about stakeholders, audience, and purpose. We will continue to explore audience appeals, next week, but let’s end class by taking a few minutes to review the Assignment Sheet that you have read for homework.

Overview of A2 (10 minutes)

Since students read the assignment sheet for homework, you shouldn’t need to spend too long reviewing it. Review the highlights, perhaps pointing out where key terms and ideas appear in the assignment that have been explored this week: stakeholder, synthesis, exigency, etc.

TIP: If there is time left over at the end of this discussion, you might consider taking students through the “Hierarchy of Rhetorical Concerns” or introducing homework early and allowing them a few minutes to begin working on the A2 Prep & Audience Analysis, as they are likely to have questions about this.

Assign homework (3 minutes)

If you have not finished the “Letter WTL”, by the end of class, complete it for homework, and bring it to class on Tuesday. We’ll be using this for an in class activity.
Read about appealing to your readers in the pp 451-454 in your JTC.
Critically read Martin Caparros’ article “Counting the Hungry” in the Food reader. After reading it:
Apply the info from your reading of JTC to the Caparros article. Examine how the author uses audience appeals (appeals to authority, emotion, principles/values/beliefs, character, and logic). Find at least two different appeals used in the text and be ready to talk about how those appeals are used.
Read “Science is Warning Us that a Food Crisis is coming to South Africa. Will We Stop It?” by Christopher Groskopf.
Return to the brainstorming exercise you did earlier in the week about the article from A1 you’re interested in learning more about. Based on the stakeholders you identified and problems you identified that relate to that issue, begin reading some articles from the Food reader and/or the sanctioned websites for A2 (listed on the A2 assignment sheet) so that you can “listen to the conversation” about the issue. Identify articles in the Food reader that are about the same topic and read those, or you can search on the sanctioned websites listed on the A2 assignment sheet and read more about that issue.
Begin working on the A2 Prep & Audience Analysis sheet. This will not be due until Thursday, September 21st. However, it is a good idea to get a head start on it.

Conclude Class

Next time, we’ll build more skills to help us prepare for A2 and spend some more time thinking about analyzing and appealing to specific audiences in our writing.

Connection to Next Class

Today you’ve emphasized the relationship between purpose and audience. Next time you’ll expand on the rhetorical concept of audience and help students understand the various ways they as writers can appeal to an audience (through logos, ethos, and pathos.)