open genre assignment

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Project #4 OpenGenreAssignment

ENG 1020 Project #4: Open Genre Researched Argument and Rhetorical Analysis of Your Own Work

This assignment is about choosing an appropriate genre through which to take a strong stance on you current, local issue; providing evidence to logically support that argumentative claim; utilizing suitable rhetorical features to build your own ethos with a particular crowd and appropriate emotional appeal given your context; and “publishing” in the appropriate genre of your choosing.

To do this, to know who you’re writing to and what elements would appeal most to that crowd, you must choose a specific publication for this argumentative stance. One of the requirements for this piece is you need to persuade an opposing audience. So, where does your argument belong? Who is arguing this issue? Who cares to hear your views? Who, then, would be reading this text? What do they value? How can you convince them? In other words, audience is an important aspect to consider for success on this assignment.

The thing that should be neat, or possibly fun and even creative, is that you get to choose your genre. There are many, many possibilities, and we will cover some in class, but we will not be able to cover them all. So, the possibilities are limited only by your imagination, and potentially whether or not your argument fits into a specific genre.

Potential genres:

  • Letter to a public official, corporation or notable figure
  • Magazine or newspaper article
  • Internet forum posting
  • Website
  • Facebook page
  • Youtube video / documentary
  • Poem
  • Graphic novel
  • Add yours here: ___________

During the work on this project, you’ll be analyzing the genre first, and then you will utilize this analysis to decide how to build your own argument for this project based on the genre criteria.

Criteria:

  • Argument is apparent; you have chosen a side to argue from
  • Your argument is focused, relevant, up-to-date, and specific
  • You have a well-formulated, rhetorically sound argument that makes a clear and valid claim, uses logical evidence/support and has a well-balanced appeal to ethos and pathos.
  • The genre you choose is appropriate
  • You work within the framework of that genre
  • The length of the assignment is appropriate and effective
  • Citations for your source material are provided, within the parameters of the chosen genre
  • The length of the text and the scope of the argument is appropriate to the genre that you have chosen
  • If you make a film / slideshow/ etc., you provide a “manuscript” of the text.
  • If you decide on a poem (or song), I would like the analysis of the rhetorical choices you made in constructing the work to also discuss in detail the sources that influenced your piece (in the event you cannot work your sources in).
  • Your final draft of this project should look like your chosen genre as much as possible within your own means.
  • Grammatical competence and stylistic language use is evident. There should be no errors present, and your writing should be absolutely the best writing you can produce.
  • Meaningful, academic research must be evident in your argument; your sources are credible; you refer to an appropriate number of sources for your genre.
  • The opposing argument is addressed unless there is a really good reason that it isn’t.
  • The content will be evaluated in large part based on how well you negotiate the rhetorical context (publication, audience, that sort of thing)

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

Worth 20 of the available 100 points

As you work on your project, you will make many rhetorical decisions as the creator. I am looking for you to present a thoughtful reflective analysis of your final project in which you discuss these choices and why you made them. The criteria for this assignment contain a lot of references to making choices appropriate to your genre. The Rhetorical analysis is where you explain those choices to maximize the effect of your argument for your target audience, genre, and publication. Convince me that you thoughtfully crafted your project with your audience and genre in mind. 500 words minimum

PRESENTATIONS

The last full week of class, will be spent on presentations. We want to see the work you have produced, and we want to be the audience you persuade to agree with you. This is worth 2 homework assignments, separate from the grade of the project. How you choose to present your project is up to you; some genres are more easily presented than others, so you may have to create a power point or something small additionally. The goal of the presentation is to show the class the work you have done. You will be expected to explain the hostile target audience, the choice of genre and publication, and the stylistic and rhetorical steps made to meet the needs of your audience and publication as well as present your argument to the class.