Merin TigertUnit 2 Handout

ENGL 101.41Unit due: 9/30

Unit 2 Overview: Who are We as Writers to Readers?

So far, we have explored our writing histories. Now it is time to apply our writing abilities to the world at large by studying genre, audience, and rhetorical situations. This means that we have to be aware of the situations in which we write, and the people for whom we write.This unit will focus on building the strengths we have developed in unit one and adding an awareness of audience and rhetorical situation. We'll work out how different audiences require different kinds of writing, and how to make conscious decisions about the choices we make in our writing to better communicate with our audiences.

To work these questions out, we will take on the role of a magazine journalist. We will scaffold the skills you need through exercises that will prepare you for the portfolio.At the end of the unit, you will actually compose an extended article for your magazine’s audience. To write to a specific audience, there are questions to focus on: What kinds of types of audiences are there? What audience are you trying to reach and influence? How does a piece of writing reach its targeted audience effectively?How do audience and context influence writing? What is the relationship between the word/language/writing and its context?

Readings:

WC,WL.

“Rituals and Traditions” Berreby, pg17-21

“Generalizing about Genre” Devitt, pg35-41

“In Your Facebook.com” Hass, Pg43-47

Further supplemental readings to be distributed in class.

Explorations:

Exploration one:It's all about the proposal. Written in class on September 11.

Congratulations! You have been selected to be a guest-writer at the magazine of your choice. Unfortunately, as with all things, nothing comes easy, so you still have to do a little grunt work to actually get the gig. This means you have to write a proposal to your editor (me) and get it approved before you can start your work. Please make sure that your proposal addresses some of the following:

  • What will your article be written about? Why do you want to write about this particular thing?
  • What is the specific audience that your piece will be addressing? How will it appeal to them?
  • Why is this article appropriate for your specific magazine? How will it fit with the magazine?
    This assignment is written in class, and should be a minimum of 2 written pages. You must use all of the allotted class time to write.

Exploration Two: Finding a Way In.Written OUTSIDE of class and due at thebeginning of class on Thursday, September18

Take all of the answers you received from your interview questions and examine them. Think about the people you interviewed as your audience. How were they similar? How were they different? In what ways would you try to reach each of them, were you writing to persuade them of something? Analyze the results of your field research, using rich language and detail. Here are some questions you can use to generate ideas. You do not have to answer all of them, and you do not have to answer them in order. They should simply help you keep going if you get stuck.

  • How did the demographics (age, background, gender, etc) differ? Did this affect how they answered your questions?
  • Do you think you could write one piece that would appeal to everyone you talked with? What would be the challenges of this?
  • Based on the answers that they gave you, how would you write to try to appeal to your audience? What specific things would you try to do, and why?
  • Now that you have analyzed your audience, would you consciously change how you write to address them specifically? Do you think this is necessary? Why or why not?
  • This assignment is due at the beginning of class and should be approximately 2 typed pages, normal margins and 12pt Times New Roman font.

Unit Writing Project:
Now that your article has been approved, you have to make sure you meet your deadline. You must write an extended essay, 3-4 pages long, about the article you have already proposed. Make sure you're really thinking about what you want to accomplish and what the best way to do it might be. Not only should your explorations from this unit have helped you think about how to work with specific audiences, but the field work you did should have given you specific answers to specific questions you might have had. In addition to the essay, you must write an extended cover letter (2-3 pages) that explains the different and specific rhetorical choices that you made. Things to do:

  • Think about the specific audience that your magazine addresses and write for that audience
  • Make sure that your project is organized in a way that makes sense for that audience
  • Make sure that your project is analytical in some way; it must be a way to further educate your audience rather than pure entertainment (although it can certainly be entertaining)
  • Technicalities: 3-4 page article, 2-3 page cover letter, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font.

Remember these key thingswhen writing this, and any, essay:

  • A Clear Purpose: Why are you writing this piece? Someone who is unfamiliar with you, or the assignment, should be able to read your essay and know what you wanted to accomplish.
  • Be Concise: Whether you believe it or not, you have plenty to say. You do not need to continually repeat the same idea using different words. Properly written, your ideas will stand on their own, and if you repeat things too often, they will lose their power.
  • Be Organized: You should have some sort of organization that pulls your essay together as a whole. It can be chronological, by different ideas, anything you want--as long as it is organized and the organization is clear. However you decide to organize it, though, remember that you should always transition from one idea to the next rather than simply stopping and starting.

What’s due the daythe projectis due:
In a stapled packet, you’ll want to turn in:

  • [written last, but first in the packet:] a Cover Letter, addressing some/all of the following: what was your writing process like as you wrote this unit’s writing project? What challenges did you encounter? How did you address, or attempt to address, those challenges? What breakthroughs did you have? What do you wish you’d have done but perhaps you ran out of time, or you didn’t quite know how to do? Also, revisit the strategies (below) that we worked on this unit. What strategies did you especially gain confidence in, do you think? What made that happen? [3/4 page, single-spaced]
  • Your unit project
  • Explorations from the unit
  • Any in-class work connected to this unit project (including, but not limited to, field research, peer responses, etc.)

Unit 2 Class Schedule (subject to change):

Date / Due Today / Do Today
Thursday 9/11 / “Generalizing about Genre” Devit, pg35-41 / Discuss Devit’s Article; Complete Exploration 1
Tuesday 9/16 / “Rituals and Traditions” Berreby, pg17-21 / Discuss Berreby’s Article; Introduce and practice interview strategies. How to: Cite
Thursday 9/18 / Exploration 2; Bring one Magazine of your choice to class today. / Analyze Advertisements to audience, discuss rhetorical strategies
Tuesday 9/23 / “In Your Facebook.com” Hass, Pg43-47 / Discuss taboos; Writing for an Academic Audience
Thursday 9/25 / Rough Draft (Near Completion) / Workshop Day!
Tuesday 9/30 / Unit Two Portfolio Due at the beginning of class. / Begin Unit Three.