you’ll write a 3-5-page analysis essay, drawing on the knowledge about writing concepts you’ve been developing all semester to analyze the rhetorical decisions you made to create the genres (for example, how did you decide on a genre that was suitable, and what knowledge did you call on; how did you decide on your audience and purpose; what did you know or assume about the context…how did you adapt your knowledge to the situation).
The analysis essay is all about exploring your knowledge about the writing concepts a writer needs to make decisions about how to approach a writing situation. What is important here is to explain your thinking about how you determined what to do, not just what you did in the process. The prompts for this essay will be your guide.
Order of steps in your thinking and writing processes for Project 3:
- determine the possible needs for writing in and for this community – consider which genres might be useful in communicating within and about this community (look back at Project 2 for what you already know)
- identify around 5 genres that might be good in communication with/to the community and assess the rhetorical situation for each possibility you identify – start with at least 5 so you can narrow down to a good 3
- decide on your final three written genre samples appropriate to these situations, and create them as if you are writing in or for the community
- use your rhetorical knowledge to make decisions in creating these genres and be mindful of those decisions which you’ll write about in the analysis essay
- consider and analyze the rhetorical decisions you made in creating your genres and write your analysis essay to accompany the genres (prompts will be provided)
The guiding question for this project is: “How does one adapt their writing knowledge for any rhetorical situation?”
We’ll begin this project by discussing genres and conventions more thoroughly, then you will submit a project proposal that lays out the three genre samples you plan to create, which must be approved by your instructor before you continue. This is to ensure considerable content in the genre samples (enough to analyze thoroughly), but also to ensure choice of genres that will not require an overwhelming amount of work for one project.
No matter what genre samples you choose to create and write for your community, the most important part of Project Three is the 3-5 page analysis essay, because it provides space for your thinking. In fact, you may discover in your analysis that your genres are not as successful as you had intended while creating them – that’s okay. It’s the knowledge of why they aren’t successful that is valuable to your learning, so you can discuss that in your analysis essay if it happens. This is why the analysis is important – it’s where you’ll be able to discuss what you’ve learned. When you analyze your thinking and your writing knowledge, and assess how you approached the creation of your genres based on that knowledge, you are doing the important work of reflection, analysis, and perhaps metacognition. This allows you to further develop a framework of writing knowledge you’ll retain and be able to call upon when you need it in other writing situations beyond this course.
