Assignment → Advocacy Text and Rhetorical Analysis

Assignment → Advocacy Text and Rhetorical Analysis

ADVOCACY TEXT: Your work in the third unit of this course builds to an Advocacy Text project: the Advocacy Text is a text that has a rhetorical purpose of creating positive, productive change for a cause in the world, with an audience that reaches beyond your instructor and classmates. Remember that a text can take many shapes, but to give you a guideline to work with, please create a document that could fit onto a one-sided, standard 8.5” by 11” sheet of paper (or smaller). The text can involve any combination of message elements that fit your rhetorical purpose: these elements may include the mode or channel you use to share the text with your intended audience, the conventions or genre of the document, and graphic, visual, or design elements. You may need to conduct outside research to learn more about your cause or to find up-to-date information to include in your Advocacy Text (and keep in mind that if you use any information thats not yours and is not common knowledge, you will need to find a way to communicate the source of your information to consumers of your text).

You’re encouraged to let your text advocate for a cause that suits your personal interests and

passions. It might, for instance, seek to do one of the following: to raise awareness about an issue, to inform or educate an audience about an issue, to persuade for a particular perspective on an issue, or to make a call to action (to encourage an audience to take a concrete step to help).

To identify an opportunity that might fit this project well, you could consider either:

1. creating a text that you have the authority to share with your intended audience (such as a postcard you could send to members of an organization you lead, an infographic you could share on your social media account, or a letter to a government representative)

… or…

2. creating a text that you can propose to an existing organization, group, or individual outside our class who is already advocating for your cause and might be able to use your text (for instance, you could propose a new poster to a local nonprofit that they could use to advertise their hours and services or you could propose an informational sign to your employer that they could add to the recycling bins to educate coworkers on what materials can be recycled)

The Advocacy Text must be shared with the intended audience or shared with the organization,

group, or individual you’re proposing it to before the project is due: this is an important requirement of the project because it gives you as a student the opportunity to exercise your power as a writer-citizen.

When you submit your final project, you must include evidence that you’ve shared your

Advocacy Text with your intended audience or audience you proposed it to, such as a photograph of the text wherever you’ve posted it or a screenshot of a sent timestamped email in which you proposed the text to the audience you proposed it to. If you propose your text to an existing organization, group, or individual, whether or not that audience chooses to use your text is beyond your control and will not affect your grade.

RHETORICAL ANALYSIS: to be completed along with the third unit project in this course The Advocacy Text Rhetorical Analysis is an essay that explores the question “How did I make my decisions to create the Advocacy Text based on the rhetorical situation I was responding to?”

Your analysis should show that you made your rhetorical choices from an informed and reflective point of view, so in the Rhetorical Analysis, you should:

· Articulate the history or definition of your cause, its scope or significance (who’s impacted, when, where, why, how, and to what extent?), and the recency or relevance of the cause.

· Please cite any relevant outside research that you had to consult to create your Advocacy Text. For instance, if you had to learn more about your topic in order to choose content for your Advocacy Text, explain and cite that research in your Rhetorical Analysis.

· Identify the features of the rhetorical situation in which your Advocacy Texts operated and narrate how you shaped your decisions based on those features.

· Use specific examples of details from the Advocacy Text itself to explain how you made your rhetorical decisions, addressing the elements that make up your rhetorical situation: the message itself (how you chose the message elements, including the mode or channel, conventions, and graphic, visual, or design elements), the rhetorical purpose (what change you were trying to evoke from the audience and how you think your choices helped you do that), and the audience (including the intended audience, the actual literal audience, and how you got the message to reach these audiences—both figuratively and literally).

· Reflect about how your identity or experiences related to your choice of cause, how you experienced the composition process, and what you might be realizing or learning from these connections.

· Reflect on the affective (or emotional) experiences of this composition process and what you might be realizing about or learning from those experiences.

Technical Requirements

· You must use (4) total outside sources in the creation of the Advocacy Text and Rhetorical Analysis project. Thinking about source literacy from previous units, you want to select high quality and credible source material to build your advocacy text. (i.e. consider using the CRAAP assessment).

· Advocacy Text and evidence of “submitting” your Advocacy Text to the intended audience must be submitted as a PDF file

· Length requirement for the Advocacy Text should be approximately 1-page or more depending on the genre selected

· Rhetorical Analysis must be submitted at a .doc/.docx file

o For the Rhetorical Analysis, the essay and document should use MLA style and to reach the level of depth expected, the essay should be no shorter than about 1,000 words but may be longer

Submission Requirements:

· Final Advocacy Text and Rhetorical Analysis are due the Sunday of week 8 by 11:59 PM CST

· The Advocacy Text and Advocacy Rhetorical Analysis are submitted as (2) separate files but should be done together. You should build your Advocacy text FIRST and the Rhetorical Analysis SECOND.

Advocacy Text Rubric

	Exceeding (5)	Achieving (4)	Progressing (3)	Beginning (2)	Does not Meet Minimum Requirements (0-1)
Genre awareness and design	Strict adherence to genre/design expectations were executed as student created text	Many of the expected genre/design expectations are executed, based on student’s chosen text	Some or inconsistent genre/design expectations of student’s chosen text were applied	Few genre/design expectations of student’s chosen text were applied	No genre/design expectations of student’s chosen text were applied
integrate relevant content	The text integrates a fitting volume of relevant content to serve its rhetorical purpose.	The text integrates relevant content to serve its rhetorical purpose.	The text integrates enough relevant content to at least communicate its rhetorical purpose.	The text does not integrate enough relevant content to communicate its rhetorical purpose.	The text does not integrate any relevant content for its rhetorical purpose
Integrate credible and relevant evidence	The text consistently presents a fitting volume of both relevant and credible evidence.	The text presents many pieces of both relevant and credible evidence.	The text presents a few pieces of relevant and credible evidence	The text presents a few pieces of evidence, but the relevance and credibility is unclear	The text presents no evidence, credible/relevant or not
Determine a Fitting scope For an argument	The argument’s scope is fitting for the purpose or context.	The argument’s scope is slightly too wide or too narrow for the purpose	The argument’s scope is too wide or too narrow for the purpose or context.	The argument’s scope changes ineffectively or is inconsistent throughout the text.	The argument does not have a fitting scope.
choose message elements to fit a rhetorical purpose	The text consistently uses relevant message elements to serve its rhetorical purpose.	The text uses message elements to serve its rhetorical purpose	The text uses message elements to at least communicate its rhetorical purpose.	The text does not seem to intentionally use message elements to fit its rhetorical purpose.	The text uses message elements that conflict with its rhetorical purpose.
choose message elements to fit an intended audience	The text consistently uses relevant message elements to address its intended audience.	The text uses message elements to address its intended audience.	The text uses message elements to at least consider its intended audience.	The text does not seem to intentionally use message elements to fit its intended audience.	The text uses message elements that conflict with its intended audience.
choose message elements to fit an actual audience	The text consistently uses relevant message elements to address its actual audience.	The text uses message elements to address its actual audience.	The text uses message elements to at least consider its actual audience.	The text does not seem to intentionally use message elements to fit its actual audience.	The text uses message elements that conflict with its actual audience.
Reach an intended audience beyond the instructor and classmates	Evidence is provided that the text is sent, posted, or otherwise made directly available to the intended audience beyond the instructor and classmates.				No evidence was provided that the text was sent, posted, or otherwise made directly available to any audience beyond the instructor and classmates.
____/40points
Learning Mastery (not graded)
Academic Register Development	write papers with a clear thesis, logical structure, and cohesive, well-developed paragraphs	1-5
Language and Style	write papers with clear, varied, well-constructed sentences, with usage and mechanics conforming to standard edited English	1-5
Engagement with Writing Process	demonstrate an understanding of writing as a complex, recursive process whereby ideas are explored, developed, and communicated to a particular audience for a particular purpose	1-5

Rhetorical Analysis Rubric

	Exceeding (5)	Achieving (4)	Progressing (3)	Beginning (2)	Does not Meet Minimum Requirements (0-1)
Identifying the features of the rhetorical situation	The writing identifies the full rhetorical context of the texts	The writing identifies many features of the texts’ rhetorical situations	The writing identifies some of the texts’ rhetorical situations	The writing identifies only a few features of the texts’ rhetorical situations.	The writing does not identify the features of the text’s rhetorical situations
Narrate how the features of a rhetorical situation affect decision making	The writing narrates all relevant effects of rhetorical features on decisions-making	The writing narrates many effects of rhetorical features on decision-making	The writing narrates a few effects of rhetorical features on decision-making	The writing narrates the effects of the rhetorical features in a general way but not in terms of this particular analysis	The writing does not narrate the effects of rhetorical features on decision-making
Identify Relevant and Credible evidence	The writing consistently presents a fitting volume of both relevant and credible evidence.	The writing presents many pieces of both relevant and credible evidence.	The writing presents a few pieces of relevant and credible evidence	The writing presents a few pieces of evidence, but the relevance and credibility is unclear	The writing presents no evidence, credible/relevant or not
Integrate evidence	The writing consistently integrates the evidence by providing introduction, connections to the argument, citations, and context	The writing often integrates the evidence by providing introductions to the argument, citations, and context.	The writing consistently integrates the evidence into the prose by providing introductions and citations as fitting but may not provide context or connect the evidence to the argument	The writing integrates the evidence by providing citations but may not provide introductions, connections, or context	The writing does not integrate any evidence or does not provide any citations for evidence
Determine a fitting scope for argument	The argument’s scope is fitting for the purpose or context.	The argument’s scope is slightly too wide or too narrow for the purpose or context.	The argument’s scope is too wide or too narrow for the purpose or context.	The argument’s scope changes ineffectively or is inconsistent throughout the writing.	The argument does not have a fitting scope.
Create a fitting organizational structure for argument	The argument’s structure serves the rhetorical purpose.	The argument’s structure serves the rhetorical purpose but may not be fully executed throughout the writing.	The argument’s structure somewhat serves the rhetorical purpose.	The argument’s structure changes ineffectively or is inconsistent throughout the writing.	The argument does not seem to have an intentional structure.
Articulate the potential influences of consequences of one’s identity and experiences as the writer	The writing articulates connections between identity or experiences and the argument and considers implications or future applications.	The writing articulates connections between identity or experiences and the argument but may not consider implications or future applications.	The writing articulates connections between identity or experiences and the argument but in a dismissive or superficial way.	The writing articulates details about identity or experiences but does not connect them to the argument.	The writing does not Articulate relevant connections to identity or experiences.
Reflect on the affective experiences of the composition process	The writing reflects on the affective experiences of this composition process and considers their significance and future applications or implications.	The writing reflects on the affective experiences of this composition process and attempts to consider their significance to this process.	The writing identifies the affective experiences of this composition process but may not reflect on their significance.	The writing identifies affective experiences of the composition process in a general way but not in terms of this particular composition process.	The writing does not identify any affective experiences of the composition process.
____/40points
Learning Mastery (not graded)
Academic Register Development	write papers with a clear thesis, logical structure, and cohesive, well-developed paragraphs	1-5
Language and Style	write papers with clear, varied, well-constructed sentences, with usage and mechanics conforming to standard edited English	1-5
Engagement with Writing Process	demonstrate an understanding of writing as a complex, recursive process whereby ideas are explored, developed, and communicated to a particular audience for a particular purpose	1-5
Advance Rhetorical Strategies	identify writing conventions and rhetorical expectations across a range of academic genres	1-5