Theory of Writing & Portfolio

This assignment gives you a chance to reflect on what you know about writing, and how what you know shapes your decisions about how you write. Reflection gives you a better understanding of what you know about your subject. This semester we have used reflection in this way on several occasions. For this final assignment, you’ll use reflection to develop a theory of writing. Your theory of writing will serve as the introduction to your portfolio–it should be on the introductory page to your portfolio website. The digital portfolio should contain, at a minimum, all of the major writing assignments from this semester–the Inquiry Based essay, the Source Based Essay, the Composition in Two Genres, and the Theory of Writing–plus anything else (reflections, work from other classes or your non-academic life, or something else) that will support the claims you make in your theory of writing.

Through your application of key rhetorical terms–rhetorical situation, audience, author, tone, purpose, genre, medium, stance, and language–you have been developing your theory of writing and exploring how it informs your practice of writing. As a result of your work with these rhetorical concepts and writing strategies, you have had the opportunity to create a knowledge base of writing and its practices.

For this assignment, describe your theory of writing. Using the key terms and strategies, describe what you believe it is important to know about writing. Then, describing your writing process and your writing for this semester, describe how what you believe about writing shapes your writing. Use examples from your work for this class, for other classes, or, if useful, your non-academic life to demonstrate this relationship between theory and practice.

Frame your theory of writing as a narrative–what did you believe about writing coming into this class, and how has that theory changed with each assignment? If there were any significant events that had an impact on you–a certain assignment, comments from peers and instructors, or something else–use that event as a way to shape your narrative. What is different about how you write now? Be sure to describing writing that took place outside this classroom–your theory of writing should be expansive enough to shape your writing across multiple contexts.

This final reflection is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your increased knowledge in writing–the practices of writing, the key terms, and any specific skills you’ve acquired.

Theory of Writing due Friday, May 14.

Completed Portfolio due Wednesday, May 20th.

Sample Portfolio: https://socialissues.commons.gc.cuny.edu/

 

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COMPOSITION IN TWO GENRES

Essay #3: Composition in Two Genres

For this assignment, you will move from researching and analyzing your topic, as you did in the Research Essay, to creating a composition that uses two different genres to communicate to a targeted audience about that same topic. You will use your previous research to inform your creative strategy and help you make the rhetorical choices necessary to create an effective composition. These two genres are up to you to decide upon, based on your analysis of the rhetorical situation and the way in which you respond to it.

In this assignment, you will strategically target a specific audience(s), then develop key messages to communicate to that audience–based on knowledge of your topic gained from developing the research essay–and finally create two genres designed to communicates those messages to your audience(s). You will also write a rationale to communicate the connections between genres and your strategies for choosing them, and you will write a reflection that will consider the effect of these choices on your audience.

This assignment requires you to engage your critical thinking, rhetorical awareness, and reflection capabilities in order to most effectively communicate with your specified audience. Your strategy will determine the choices you make in communicating to your audience, how you present the research, and what you create to convey your message. The composition will include:

• Two genres of communication created for your audience(s)
• A rationale for your composition (1-2 pages) that orients your reader to the purpose of your work and its significance to your audience
• A reflection (1-2 pages) that outlines the process from audience strategy to final composition, exploring the rhetorical choices—genre, stance, and rhetorical situation—you made in creating this project

Potential Genres

You may use any genres you feel are appropriate to your audience. The strategy you develop will guide you in choosing the genres you want to create. Communicating effectively to your audience by choosing genres best suited to conveying your message will determine the potential effect of your composition. The genres that you choose must be approved by your instructors.

Just as you did for the research essay, for this composition project you will engage in a series of short writing assignments designed to help you focus your thinking about audience, message, and outcome before you begin the composition.

Short Assignment #1: Audience Strategy
This strategy will be developed based on your research essay–building on the work you have done to know and reach your chosen reader or readers. The audience strategy is the blueprint or foundation of your composition, so it is critical to develop a strategy with the end effect in mind. Planning in advance about how you will communicate your ideas to an audience will ensure its success; poor planning will result in a less-than-effective final project.

This piece should include an identification of audience (who are they, specifically), and an explanation of how you arrived at this information (why write for these people/person, and to what effect?). You will then offer options, no more than five, of genres you believe will help you to effectively reach them. Be clear about the who, why and how of your project, so that when you move forward, you have all of this information to help you form a unique and effective composition.

Short Assignment #2: Reflection on Your Composition
In this reflection, you will analyze the process of moving from your research essay to your composition project, as well as think through questions that involve the key terms. Think about what rhetorical choices you have made, and consider the following questions: 1) Audience–what barriers in communicating to your audience(s) did you encounter? How did you overcome these barriers? 2) Process–how was the composing process different from your research essay? 3) Genre–why did you choose the two genres that you did? How did the genre affect the audience choice? 4) Reflection–what rhetorical practices did you find yourself using? Were they effective in the way you presented them?

Timeline

Audience Strategy: Due April 21st

Composition in 2 Genres Project:

Reflection:

Check-list

Have you

• completed all of the short assignments, responding to the questions in each assignment in sufficient detail?
• created two genres of your composition?

 

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AN INQUIRY-BASED RESEARCH ESSAY

Essay #2: An Inquiry-Based Research Essay on the Subject of Your Choice

Assignment Description

For this assignment, you will write a 8-10 page (2,000-2,500 words) research essay. The objective in developing this inquiry-based research essay is probably not like other research essays with which you may be familiar. In an inquiry-based essay, the development of a research question is the cornerstone of the essay, providing a guideline for you to follow your research wherever the information takes you. The careful formulation of a solid research question about your topic is crucial to ensure your inquiry will be effective. Once you have developed a question–and that question has been approved by your instructor–you’ll conduct research that will help you answer it.

In order to answer that question, we ask you to identify an article to serve as a model for the essay you are writing. Your essay will take on the general shape and contours of that model essay. Since each student’s model essay is unique, the essays each of you write will be different. Although all of the essays will be some version of a research essay, some will argue for particular positions, some will be explanatory or investigative in nature, and some will be intended to inform. Your sub-genre’s conventions–where the thesis goes and how it’s worded, how the claim/support structure is arranged, its visual presentation, and how it concludes–will determine, but not dictate, the arrangement of your own essay. Genres are socially agreed up methods of arrangement, but they’re flexible.

Once your research question is finalized, you will look for information that will help you explore and, perhaps, answer your question. Your aim here will be to make use of the research that you discover to help you to shape your essay. To do that, you’ll need to find a variety of sources that are relevant to your topic and read them carefully enough that you’ll be able to summarize their main points for use in your essay. You’ll want to be sure that you’ve included as least one opposing point of view.

The following types of research must be incorporated into your essay:

• An interview with a member of a non-profit organization, or an observation of an event organized by a non-profit organization (you may want to conduct this interview yourself).

• At least 4 academic/scholarly sources

• At least 3 popular media sources

Throughout the research process, you will write several short assignments in various genres. These genre assignments are designed to keep your research focused, to have you reflect on the research process and your sources so that you might better analyze them, and to help you present strong ideas in your essay. Each genre assignment is designed to help you through various stages of your research.

Checklist: Have I…

• included four scholarly and three popular sources in my essay?

• modeled my essay on an existing publication, adopting its genre conventions for my own essay?

• completed the research topic proposal, the report on research in process, and the final reflection?

• applied MLA citation style conventions in both in-text and end of text references?

Subgenre 1: Research Topic Proposal (1-2 typed, single-spaced pages)

The proposal should identify the specific research question that you determine based on your initial exploration/research. It should make clear your topic and the phrasing of your question, as well as link to at least three of the sources you plan on using. You will need to include:

• Your research question with some context. What is it about this question that interests you? Why is it relevant to social justice or social action?

• At least three potential sources you plan to use.

• A link to your model essay.

• A description of your audience and the name of a publication and a model essay (with a URL, if relevant) for which your essay might be appropriate.

I will either approve your research question or ask you to revise it based on this piece of writing.

Subgenre 2: Report on Research in Progress (1-2 typed, single-spaced pages)

In this report you will provide an update on your research in progress. You should provide the following information:

• Discuss the sources you have found so far and analyze their credibility

• Provide details about each source: how was each found, what makes it viable, and how you imagine each one effectively supporting your ideas

• Identify a source you found while conducting your research but have discarded, and explain why you are excluding it

• Discuss a source you are considering using, but about which you are still unsure, and explain your uncertainty

• Identify what’s missing in your research, and speculate about information you are still seeking from additional sources

Subgenre 3: Post-Essay Reflection

Your purpose in this assignment is to reflect on your most recent essay to demonstrate what you know about writing. If you can, you should also describe what you have learned about writing–what do you know about writing that you didn’t know in August?

Before you begin your essay, write a brief paragraph in which you identify your audience and the impact your audience has on your genre, language, and tone. Some possible audiences include next year’s entering students, a human resources department at an agency that hires communication specialists in your field, or the US Secretary of Education.

Address the various aspects of writing that we have practiced–generating thoughts, peer review (both in and out of class), research (finding sources and generating your own material through interviews and observations), synthesis (making connections between your ideas and the ideas in your research sources), your drafting process, and anything else that seems important to you.

Submission: Through Blackboard

 

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AN SOURCE-BASED ANALYSIS ESSAY

Essay #1: Source-Based Essay on Rhetorical Situation: Author, Audience, Tone, Purpose, Genre, Medium, and Stance

Assignment Resources

rhetorical situation
author and audience
tone and purpose
genre and medium
stance and language

 

Goals for this Assignment

With this assignment, we want you (our audience) to get some practice with the rhetorical terms that we list above (our purpose). We will use these rhetorical terms throughout the semester; they form the basis of the course. Throughout the course, we want to develop your understanding of how rhetoric and writing function in social contexts. You’ll be able to use what you learn about rhetoric in this course and apply it in any other course that requires writing. We also want to familiarize you with CCNY’s academic databases. You already know how to search for material on the open web; a better understanding of how to make use of academic databases will expand the range of materials to which you have access. (Notice our tone and language here: professional, but not too academic. Accessible, but not casual.)

Technical Details

For this assignment, you will write a source-based article (that is, you’ll do some research in CCNY’s academic databases) in which you will describe the rhetorical elements–author and audience, tone and purpose, genre and medium, and stance and language–of three sources that you have found in CCNY’s academic databases and on the open web on the subject of your choice. You need to have at least three sources, and they must include a web site (including social media posts), a magazine or newspaper article, and a scholarly source (we’ll discuss “scholarly sources” in detail during the class). With the exception of the website, you must locate your sources within CCNY’s academic databases. We recommend that you use Academic One File, Opposing Viewpoints in Context, and the National Newspaper Index, but the choice is up to you.

You will be asked to write a short personal narrative essay ahead of your analysis, which you may wish to assimilate into your final essay, but will be graded separately.

For each article you choose, you will provide a brief summary, describe its author and audience, tone and purpose, genre and medium, and stance. In your analysis, you’ll not only identify, for example, the writer’s purpose–to inform, to persuade, to argue, or something else–but also what in the text tells you what the purpose is. If, for example, I think the article’s purpose is to argue, I’d point out phrases like “In this article I argue,” or point out where the author makes specific claims about their subject. You’ll also need to look at both the articles you choose and the publication in which they appear. Looking at the publication’s web site will give you a lot of information about your article’s purpose and audience.

Finally, you’ll make connections between the various articles that you analyze. In what ways are your various sources similar or different? What conclusions can you draw from this analysis, and what does it tell you about rhetoric in a larger framework?

 

Format

Please use Times New Roman, 12 point font. Make sure you have a clear heading with your name and class information, and number your pages. In this essay, you’re describing a series of articles. Instead of making an argument, as school essays often do, you’re exploring your sources from a rhetorical perspective. This will be new to many of you, so be sure to review the below information. The essay should include:

A general introduction, that tells the reader what your subject is
Rhetorical analyses of four sources (including all eight key terms for each)
Your thoughts about the relationships between the rhetorical elements of your sources
With the exception of the general introduction, your essay doesn’t have to be in this exact order. You might, for example, want to talk about author and audience across all of your sources at the same time instead of separately presenting the audience analysis for each article.

Length:
Personal Narrative: 3-5 page
First Draft of Essay: at least 5 pages
Final Essay: 6-7 pages, including citations (1,500-1,750 words)

Submission: Through Blackboard (we’ll go through the process in class)

Checklist: Have you

Used three different genres for your sources?
Completed a personal narrative?
Identified and made comparisons between the various rhetorical aspects of your sources?
Uploaded your assignment to Bb?