Context Analysis Proposal
Arguments written in an academic context require that the writer fully understand the ramifications of and other arguments surrounding the issue she/he takes on. In other words, rather than only picking a side of an issue and defending it as we might in a conversation, the preliminary work in more sophisticated arguments for public, educated audiences involves a good deal of research not only on the issue but also around the issue. The reason for this research is so that the writer can both establish authority on their topic by being well-versed in the positions taken on it and show knowledge of the issues and concerns surrounding their position. Such knowledge and authority allow the writer's argument to be more reasoned (i.e. fairly looking at all sides), and the writer to better understand his/her audience's knowledge of and position on the topic.
Frequently, before a writer can publish a piece they need to demonstrate this knowledge of the issue and the positions taken on it to an editor in order to prove they know enough to write a piece on the topic. For this assignment, I will be asking you to do the same thing. You will be writing a proposal to the imaginary editor (me) of an educational publication like those we have been reading in PHG, RRA, and in your library annotations. Your goal here is to convince me that you understand the positions taken on your topic, how they think about each others' positions, and where you think your own position fits in. This paper will require, then, that you draw off all the skills learned in the previous papers: critical reading, summary, analysis, and a bit of persuasion. (Much of this proposal, as an added benefit, may make its way into your final paper as well.)
Audience: Editor of an educational journal
Purpose: To convince the editor you are well-versed on your issue and able to fairly assess the other positions on it.
Requirements: For this assignment, I will expect you to do the following, though not necessarily in the following order (you determine the organization):
--Define your issue with a clear focus; at this point, a question will probably serve you best since you may not have defined your own position as yet.
--Summarize at least three positions on this question that you find in your research (one of these may also come from the class readings).
--Offer an example for each position and an analysis of it: who takes this position? why are they taking this position? what does it say about their interests/possible biases?
--Compare and contrast the three positions: what similarities do they share? where do they diverge? which position is most like the others or are all three widely divergent?
--Conclude with a brief proposal of what you will write about. What position might you take? Based on your analysis of the context, who do you think you will address your argument to and why? What kind of research do you plan to conduct?
--Provide a bibliography for your sources
Grading: These will be ungraded as I am reading them primarily to help you see where you need further research and how you are assessing the context you will be writing in. They will, however, be counted as 15 points on the homework count. (In other words, failing to complete this assignment to "S" quality will severely hurt your homework percentage).