Rhetoric in Practice

Purpose

This project shifts the rhetorical situation from analyzing a message from the position of an audience member (trying to build a deep understanding of the meaning of the text, the context in which the sender created it, and the audiences to which it speaks) to one in which you yourself are a creator, producing a text that is relevant to the class theme or texts.

This project imitates what you’ll be asked to do often in both your college career and afterwards—discern what you want to say, who you want to say it to, and how best to do so. The Rhetoric-in-Practice assignment is intended to give you a deeper appreciation of what it means to make specific rhetorical choices to serve your message and an opportunity to reflect on how those choices affect the message you are sending and the audience that you reach with it.

In this way, the RIP is a culmination of the work you’ve done in this class with respect to your understanding of both genre and rhetoric.

Outcomes

• Develops clear cogent analyses and convincing arguments about rhetorical choices
• Identifies and articulates genre expectations, situating the text at hand within a larger

conversation in a particular rhetorical situation, with a particular audience

• Selects credible and pertinent material from readings and outside texts to support a point or argument as well as illustrates awareness of viewpoints and competing arguments
• Situates, integrates, and contextualizes different types of evidence effectively while

distinguishing the writer’s voice from those of sources.

• Demonstrates effective organization and style – for a particular purpose, within a

particular genre, to a particular audience

• Connects rhetorical choices from class readings to their own projects, applying these principles to their own purposes effectively and appropriately
• Rewrites and edits language, style, tone, and sentence structure according to genre

and audience expectations

• Practices applying citation conventions systematically in their own work
• Plans and executes a revision process that does not rely only on direction from the

instructor, developing ownership of both process and product to revise purposefully

Assignment
The RIP assignment has two parts: project and essay.

Project: You will craft a text having selected a purpose and audience that addresses the class theme (or responds to one of the class texts). You will then select an appropriate genre for this project, and demonstrate your rhetorical know-how by selecting appropriate rhetorical choices for this situation. In other words, your created text will operate within a clear rhetorical framework—with a clear context, belonging to an identifiable genre, and with a clear purpose and audience—that addresses the class theme (or responds to one of the class texts). The only limitation on genre is that it is text-based and it cannot be a short story. Discuss with your instructor if he or she has other limitations.

Message and Purpose: First, what’s your message going to be? What do you want to portray about either your class text or class theme? Think about this specifically and complexly—what are the new insights you can bring to the table? What are arguments that you can make?

Audience: Once you decide your message, whom do you want to target? Why? And what are going to be the expectations of this audience? What might be difficult in addressing them? Think specifically about who they are and what their expectations will be. How will that affect your appeals to them?

Context: What’s the historical and cultural context of this project? Is this taking place right now? Where and when? How does that influence the project? See the AGWR 39B chapter for more details about exploring context.

Genre: After you think through all of these possibilities, now you can start to decide on a genre for your project. The RIP project should involve a text-based genre, but is only limited by your imagination. Part of this project’s goal is for you to explore a genre that you’re not familiar with, so you should pick something that can challenge you in terms of making a complex argument in a different format. There can be multi-modal components to the project, but there should be a significant amount of text should be the primary component. Research various genres online for what might be most compelling to you—for instance, perhaps you’re interested in a short video, but instead can write a film treatment or pitch document for it. Consider your past RIP exercises as a starting point for your final genre project.

Your instructor may suggest specific directions that relate to your class readings and/or theme.

Essay: You will also write a rhetorical analysis of your own work that analyzes the rhetorical choices you made. The essay should build on your work in the RA essay and indicate how you’re applying your rhetorical know-how. You’ll include secondary sources that demonstrate, among other things, your understanding of your chosen genre and your understanding of the texts/ideas you’ve studied throughout the quarter.

Requirements

Because this is a project that may take time, the planning for the RIP project starts with the RIP exercises you’ve been doing since week 1. These exercises should show that you’re engaged with the work of planning all parts of the project (purpose, audience, genre, and context). Your instructor will coach you about projects that do not have a clear purpose or audience, seem to misunderstand the chosen genre or are likely to be too ambitious, but you need to show ownership of your own process and product.

Multiple drafts, peer review and revision are required elements of the assignment. The RIP project’s length depends on the purpose, audience and genre, but it should be equal to your Rhetorical Analysis in complexity.

**************In the vein of thinking about your project consider this as a guide. Walk through the rhetorical situation with three ideas for your RIP and try to answer most of the questions in each section.

Logos: What’s your message? What point are you trying to convey? Why is it important?

Pathos:What platform will you use to reach your audience? Which demographic or group of people needs to hear this message? Who does this effect? How will you get them to respond to what you’re trying to say?

Ethos: Is there any research that supports your message? How are you qualified to talk/write about this? How can you get people to trust what you’re doing/saying is correct?

Submit your answer in the text box below. Keep in mind that this somehow has to relate to our class theme of unnatural creatures.