Letters to the World Imitations and Revision(20%/200points)
Duedates
On Omeka
February 14 (Tues) before class:Coates Collection submission
February 23 (Thurs) before class: Sancho Collection submission
March 7 (Tues) before class: Crèvecoeur Collection submission
March 30 (Thurs) before class: Jacobs Collection submission
On T-square
April 6 (Thurs) before class: Letter Revision and Composition Rationale
Task
This is the first part of a two-part project, for which we are creating an archive of “letters to the world,” composed individually by you in light of the texts we are reading in class. The second part of the project, discussed later in the semester, will ask you to analyze that archive you have created in groups and develop an interpretative argument about the twenty-first-century experience that shapes the letters in the archive. Your argument will be submitted on the Web-based platform Omeka(submission dashboard here) in the form of a substantial essay and image gallery of the letters you use as evidence.
For this first part of the project, you will submit four letters, composed in four different formats, to the designated Omeka Collection.
- 80 points: Everyone will submit the Coates imitation for a grade.
- 120 points: After all the letters have been written, you will select one of the remaining three letters to revise and submit for a grade, accompanied by a 250- to 300-word rationale for the rhetorical/media choices and revisions you made.This will be submitted on T-square.
Submission
You will make four (4) submissions to the Omeka “Letters to the World” archive. Each submission consists of a letter composed inresponse to one of the primary texts we are reading in class, according to the prompts given below. Three (3) of the letters must be at least 300 words; the fourth must be at least one (1) word and no more than 500 words.
The first letter, imitating Ta-Nehisi Coates’s letter to his son, must be an audio or audio-visual recording of your letter, like the audio book you listened to. The other three letters must represent the following media:
- handmadepaper (typed or handwritten) bearing the watermark you design
- a postcard
- a digital or electronic medium (text, Fb, email)
When you submit each letter as an “Item” to its Collection, complete the Dublin Core metadata for the following fields: Title, Subject, Description, Creator, Publisher, Date, Format, Language, Type.
Prompts
Coates: In the Year of X (80 pts)
Write to someone who looks up to you and, in the context of a significant cultural event of the last year, warn and advise that person about the world as you experience it.
Sancho Collection: In My Humble Opinion
Write to a famous cultural figure and convince that person to incorporate a political issue that has affected you personally into their work. Offer a specific illustration of how they might address the issue in their work.
Crèvecoeur Collection: What Is a Yellow Jacket?
Write to someone who has supported you in your successbut knows little about Georgia Tech or STEM education. Use your experience here this year to distinguish the character of Georgia Tech students from that of students at other STEM universities.
OR:
Write to someone at Tech with a claim about the defining characteristic of the people in the place you come from.
Jacobs Collection: Misdirection
Write the letter you wish you’d written to someone in the past in order to deceive them for a good cause. Use the material and formal properties of the letter to assist your deception. You may also write a letter to someone you want to deceive for a good cause, similarly using the formal and material properties of the letter to execute your plan.
Grading
This portion of the project is worth 200points, or 20%ofyourfinalgrade. Youwillbeevaluatedon:
• thestrength and clarity of the claim you make in response to the prompt
• thequality and specificity of the evidence you present to support your claim
• the appropriateness of the letter’s register and tone to its audience and situation
• following instructions for submission, Dublin Core protocol, length, medium, and addressing the prompt
• the substance and success of the revisions to the selected letter
• the rhetorical awareness conveyed in the rationale for the selected letter and its revision