Assignment Prompt
Based on your peer’s Written Language and Literacy narrative, write a 2-3 page (double-spaced) magazine-style “profile” where you tell a story about your peer as a writer by:
- Introducing who they are as a writer (see “Interview” below)
- Analyzing different rhetorical strategies (aka “writerly choices”) present in their language and literacy narrative.
Additional Information
Interview. You will have the chance to interview your peer to learn more about their language and literacy background and to inquire about their rhetorical strategies in their Language and Literacy Narrative. You can share with your peer what you wrote in Part Two and ask whether it accurately describes their writerly choices (or not).
Audience. You will decide who is the audience for this profile. Ask yourself who needs to hear your message most? By choosing your audience, you will also decide where this profile should be “published.” Would an existing platform or publication reach your audience, or will you need to create a new one?
Genre. You can learn about writing “profiles” by viewing this instructional video from The New York Times. We will also read and discuss sample profiles together in class, so you will come to learn the typified features of this genre. But you are invited, as always, to push the boundaries of what this genre “can” or “should” look like.
The “A” Option. If pursuing an “A” in the course, you will write an extended “Peer Profile” that is 4-5 double-spaced pages. Your extension can include more analytical details, more contextual analysis (based on information gathered in the interview), and/or more examples from additional rhetorical strategies you identify.
Assignment Details
Your written narrative should be 2.5-3 pages and must contain:
- A carefully crafted and revised story of a specific moment, event, or experience.
- Vivid details that draw your readers into the scene.
- Three (or more) materials and media to support your narrative, such as pictures of artifacts, images, links, video clips, quotes, sound bites, etc. (As all of your major assignments will be placed on a WordPress site you develop, so creating multimodal texts is important.)
- Your interpretations of the larger social significance of the event chosen. (After all, our individual narratives reflect larger trends in society, history, where you grew up, and identities like gender, race, culture, linguistic background, and ability. (Your interpretations may be explicitly included in your narrative or implied. But if left implied, be sure to be explicit about these connections in your Cover Letter.)
Assessment Rubric
- Analyze the relationship between a peer author’s rhetorical strategies and the rhetorical situation of their Language and Literacy Narrative
- How effective are the observations of rhetorical strategies in our course texts? How effectively are these observations connected back to elements of the rhetorical situation (i.e., information about the author, text, context/exigence, purpose, and audience)?
- Compose a “Profile”
- How effective is the peer profile in meeting (or purposely challenging) the typified conventions of a magazine profile?
- Organization:
- Is the profile written in a way that is clear and relevant for your intended audience? Did you connect the peer profile to a larger issue related to the politics of language? Did you come up with a creative, fitting title?
- Interview integration:
- Did you integrate paraphrases and quotes from your interview in a way effective for your purpose and audience? Were interview quotes introduced successfully (not left hanging)?
- Audience:
- Did you consider your tone, title, voice/perspective, and choice of publication? Does the profile’s message connect effectively with the intended audience?
- General Requirements
- Were all requirements for length and due date met?
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