Final Major Project: Putting Your Research into Action

Why am I doing this project?

Why am I doing this project? In this final major project, you will put your research into action. Using the topic and sources that you gathered and discussed during the previous project, you have the opportunity to do something with that research for a rhetorical purpose. The goal here is to take what you have learned from your research about your topic and present your ideas publicly to a specific audience, in order to impact their thinking or actions in a specific way. As we learned in Module 1, people who are information literate know how to find good research, and they understand that all sources have been "packaged" for a particular audience, purpose, genre, and context and are not all equally useful and they choose sources to use in their own researched writing that best suits their own audience, purpose and genre. It's this third element we will focus on here. Because you may find as you are writing that not all of your sources are useful for your audience, purpose, and genre, you may have to find more sources to complete this third project. What is this project? This project has two parts, with a total of three things you will turn. Each part is worth 50% of your grade for this project. Part 1: Genre Shift ("Creative Texts") For the final project, first you will create two texts, each addressing the same topic that you explored in the previous module. These two texts must be composed for two different audiences and for two different rhetorical situations. I will provide some options for audiences, purposes, and genres, but you will have the freedom to select from a range of rhetorical situations that interest and that you find most compelling given your topic and research For your first text, you must choose an extended written genre, such as a web article, op-ed, essay, blog, letter to a public official, etc, and write to persuade your specific audience. In this extended written text, you need to focus on integrating your research in genre-appropriate ways (ex: hyperlinks instead of in-text citations, if that’s more genre-appropriate) to write an evidence-based persuasive text. It is important that you use your research in this first text, in order to demonstrate that you have learned how to integrate your research. This means that you must include at least two quotes from the research you've done with in-text citations, in order to show that you can incorporate research in rhetorically-savvy ways. However, your in-text citations do not necessarily need to be the parenthetical ones in MLA format. Depending on the written genre you choose, hyperlinks might be a more appropriate way to reference your sources, and this is fine. For example, notice the three hyperlinked sources that appear in the first paragraph of this news article (Links to an external site.). The author does not include in-text citations in MLA format, but they are using hyperlinks to reference their research, and this is an appropriate choice for the online article. Remember, the purpose of including quotes is to 1) use your research to support your persuasive stance and 2) boost your credibility by showing that you have sources to support your point. You will notice in the grading rubric that this first text is worth twice as many points as the second text, because it will likely be much harder to produce. For your second text, you will shift the first text you created, 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). You have lots of options and are encouraged to be creative! You can create a visual text, such as an infographic, poster, brochure, flyer, or you can write a song or a poem. You can even design something for social media, like vlog (YouTube video) or series of Instagram posts. In the chart below, there are some suggestions to get your ideas flowing, but ultimately, the purpose, audience, and genre you choose for the second text to put your research into action is up to you! The key is that you want to shift your argument from a written genre (text 1) to another genre (text 2) and change the purpose and/or the audience as well. What are some possible “texts” that I can create for my two text options? Audience Purpose Genre Text 1: Your choice based on your topic Persuasive Op-ed Blog post series Web article Text 2: Your choice based on your topic (must be a different choice than text 1) Persuasive Informative Evaluative Infographic Poster Poem Video Podcast… and more! Can I see an example of rhetorical situations? Sure! Pretend that your research topic of Module 2 was "Multilingual Students." Below is an example of two different rhetorical situations that someone could use for this final project: Research Topic Audience Purpose Genre Example Rhetorical Situation 1: Multilingual students FIU Admin Persuade Business letter that persuades administration to offer more resources for multilingual students Example Rhetorical Situation 2: Multilingual students Teachers Inform Infographic of resources for teaching multilingual students In this above example, the student could write two texts: a business letter and an infographic. As they create each text, they would need to make decisions about what their text will look like and what information to include based on their chosen audience and purpose. Will I use Research? Whatever you create for this project should be informed by all the research you've done in the class. 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 DigitalWriting 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. I have provided more information about what to write, including guiding questions to help you, in the assignment. How will I be graded for this project? Two texts submission rubric: Text 1 effectively meets the basic conventions of the genre of the text. /18 Text 1 effectively appeals to its specific audience. Text 1 effectively persuades this specific audience of a specific stance concerning the research topic.  Text 1 is clearly influenced by research, and research and evidence is logically integrated into the text in genre-appropriate ways. /23 Text 2 effectively meets the basic conventions of the genre of the text. If research is explicitly referenced, it is integrated in genre-appropriate ways.  Text 2 effectively achieves the purpose of the text. /6 Text 2 effectively appeals to its specific audience Total  Writer’s Statement rubric: The writer includes a detailed and thoughtful description of the rhetorical situations they chose for this project and how the purpose, audience, and genre of the text work together effectively. The writer includes a detailed and thoughtful description of the process of translating research from the Module 3 project into other genre(s). /25 The writer includes a detailed and thoughtful discussion of the rhetorical nature of researched writing and its potential to make change in the world.The writer makes connections between their final project and other assignments/activities in the course.