In your last project, you started to put your research to work by writing a web text for a public audience. However, as we’ve learned all semester, there are many ways to participate in a conversation online–and, importantly, the mode, genre, audience, and purpose affect how we participate in those conversations and the way we use research. The goal in this project is for you to explore a different way to participate in the same conversation you’ve been working in since Module 2 by “re-packaging” your research to reach a new audience or to achieve a different purpose.
What is this project?
This project has two parts. Each is worth 50% of your grade for this project.
First, you will shift the text you created in Unit 3, so that it now addresses a different audience, for a different purpose, in a different genre (at least 2 out of 3 of these must be different than the document you created for Unit 3). I will provide some options for audiences, purposes, and genres, but you will have the freedom to select the rhetorical situations that interest you the most and that you find most compelling given your topic and research. Allwriting is creative, so we will refer to this first half of the project as your “shifted text” but I want to encourage you to experiment and take risks as you design a text for your chosen rhetorical context and think of it as an opportunity to be creative.
For the second part of this project, after you have composed your shifted text, you will write a critical reflection detailing your experience of using research to write in two different contexts (that is, for your Unit 3 project and for your Unit 4 project).
Importantly, in order to shift, that means you are keeping the same topic and research question as you used in the previous unit.
What are some possible “texts” that I can create for my shifted project?
| Audience Examples | Purpose | Genre Examples |
| StudentsFacultyCommunity GroupAdministrationParentsTeachers(and more!) | Persuasive Informative Evaluative | Op-edInfographicVideoBlogPodcastBrochureFact SheetSong(and more!) |
This chart is meant to help you start thinking about possible rhetorical situations for your text. For example, you might choose for to compose an evaluative (purpose) vlog (genre) for students (audience) that reviews the best writing resources for multilingual students. Someone else might choose to write a persuasive (purpose) op-ed (genre) directed towards university faculty (audience) about the need for more inclusive language policies. You are not limited to these purposes, audiences, and genres however. They are simply suggestions to get you started thinking about ideas!
A key component of doing well on this project is to think through the stakeholders who are involved in this conversation. You wrote for one audience in your last project. Who (or who else) is invested in this topic? Or, who (or who else) do you need/want to do something about this issue? Once you decide who you want to address, you’ll pick the best purpose and genre for addressing that audience.
Or, to pick your project, you might start by considering what new purpose you have for this Unit 4 text. What do you want your audience (or new audience) to do? Why? How can you use this text that you will create to move that audience to action? Once you think about what you want your audience to do, pick the best genre for getting them to do that.
Will I use research?
Whatever you create for this project should be informed by all the research you’ve done in the last two units. How can you convince stakeholders to act, based on what you’ve learned?
You’ll likely need to cite some sources in your text, but depending on what you create, the citation style will be very different. In other words, an Op-Ed might hyperlink to sources, but how does a Youtube video cite sources? Please review this resource by FIU’s Digital Writing Studio for an explanation of different citation conventions for different genres: Citation Practices in Digital Writing Environments (Links to an external site.).
I want to have a sense from your project that your position/argument is informed by all the research you’ve done all semester.
Part 2: The Writer’s Statement
Purpose: After you’ve created a text for the genre shift, you will turn in a Writer’s Statement that aims to inform and persuade an outside audience of the rhetorical savvy of your genre shift. Artist’s Statements (or in our case, a Writer’s Statement) often accompany a work of art and function as descriptions of the art from the artist’s perspective. They allow the creator to put the text in context for its audience. As such, it is both a chance to explain your rhetorical choices and an opportunity to convince your audience that your choices are sound. If you had to present and defend your genre shift to a panel of critiques, what would you say?
Audience: This Writer’s Statement is a public-facing document. In other words, you are writing for an audience beyond your instructor and even your classmates. Because you are writing for a broader, outside audience, you will need to provide enough context so that your audience understands the significance of your genre shift. After reading your Writer’s Statement, your audience should have a good understanding of the choices you made, why you made them, how they reflect the expectations of your selected genre, and how the choices that you made for your genre shift differ from the choices you made for your text from Module 3.
Task: You will write a detailed persuasive description, at least 700 words long, where you demonstrate critical thinking about your research process and the rhetorical choices you made while completing this project. You will also include the ways in which your work all semester has informed your choices for this final project.
Your Writer’s Statement should address three main topics: the rhetorical choices you made in this final project; the ways in which this project was informed by research that you collected; the ways your ideas about writing, rhetoric, and research have changed throughout the semester.