Original Writing Assignments

Writing Portfolio: Something to be Passionate About

Throughout our lives, there are issues we find ourselves drawn to, either because we are knowledgeable about them or they invoke personal experiences – sometimes both. In this class, you will be selecting a topic of interest about which you have a strong opinion and use this topic as the subject of several writing projects within different genres. These multiple writing assignments will then be collected into a portfolio to be evaluated as a whole at the end of class. Below is a brief overview of the different genres we will be exploring.

Social media

•  One of the ways many of us express ourselves and our opinions is through social media. This can include anything from Facebook to Twitter to Instagram to Snapchat.
• ·       For this assignment, you will be expressing your opinion about the topic you have selected by composing a post for a social media outlet of your choosing.
• ·       You will be evaluated on your ability to compose a clear message that fits the parameters and expectations of the social media site.

Article Analysis

• ·       You will select an article that addresses your topic and takes a stance on your issue. It can take a stance you agree with or one you disagree with.
• ·       Summarize the article and discuss why you agree or disagree with its point of view, using quotes from the article itself.
• ·       You will find this assignment particularly useful when we move to the research paper, and you are encouraged to incorporate this analysis and cite this article as one of your sources for that assignment.

Letter / E-mail

• ·       This will be a letter or an e-mail you compose to a person of authority asking them to give their attention to your topic of interest.
• ·       You will be expressing the need for their support and addressing them in a manner befitting their station, whether they be a politician, a teacher, a CEO, etc.
• ·       You will be evaluated on your rhetorical ability to persuade, as well as your consideration of the person with whom you are communicating.

Opinion Piece

• ·       This can be written in the form of a Letter to the Editor, op-ed column in a newspaper, or even a blog post.
• ·       Within this piece, you will be expressing your stance on the issue and encouraging a call to action. The call to action should be something appropriate to your issue, whether you want your reader to vote or contribute to your cause with their time or money.
• ·       You will be evaluated on your ability to address your audience, clearly articulate your opinion and communicate your call to action.

Research Paper

• ·       This final piece of your portfolio will require the most commitment and time from you.
• ·       Using at least five sources, you will educate your reader on the intricacies of your issue. These sources can be from popular publications, such as magazines or newspapers, but at least two of the sources must be from scholarly journals.
• ·       This paper is more focused on providing the background an outsider would need to understand the issue, rather than necessarily expressing your opinion about the topic at hand.

Brainstorming for Your Issue

Our first activity to launch us on this genre exploration is a brainstorming one to help you choose a topic and narrow it down to an issue that you will explore in depth. In small groups, you will answer the following questions and share your answers with each other through discussion. You are encouraged to take notes for yourself through this process, whether it is creating a mind-map or just jotting down your thoughts and ideas as they come to you.

• 1.       What is a topic that you are knowledgeable about? Is there something about which you feel you can educate others?
• 2.       What is something that you have a lot of previous experience with? For instance, is there a hobby you have that you would like to tell others about?
• 3.       What are some of the issues regarding this topic? For example, is there something about this topic that you feel needs to change?
• 4.       Do you have a stance on one of these issues? What are some of the ways you could argue in support of this stance?

At the end of this discussion, you might not have pinpointed an exact topic, but you should at least have a better idea of what direction you would like to go in. Spend a few minutes discussing your ideas with your group and jot down any ideas that come to you, whether or not you think you will ultimately pursue them as your topic. At this point, there are no wrong answers, we just want to think about all of the possibilities available to you.

WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Something to be Passionate About: A Social Media Exercise

Throughout our lives, there are issues we find ourselves drawn to, either because we are knowledgeable about them or they invoke personal experiences – sometimes both. In this class, you will be selecting a topic of interest about which you have a strong opinion and use this topic as the subject of several writing projects within different genres.

Below are some questions to consider as you brainstorm your topic:

• What is a topic that you are knowledgeable about? Is there something about which you feel you can educate others?
• What is something that you have a lot of previous experience with? For instance, is there a hobby you have that you would like to tell others about?
• What are some of the issues regarding this topic? For example, is there something about this topic that you feel needs to change?
• Do you have a stance on one of these issues? What are some of the ways you could argue in support of this stance?

One of the ways many of us express ourselves and our opinions is through social media. For this assignment, you will be expressing your opinion about an issue you have selected by composing a post for a social media outlet of your choosing. You will be evaluated on your ability to compose a clear message that fits the parameters and expectations of the social media site.

You can create a post for any of the following sites: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, or Reddit.

We will be working in groups to consider the audience and format for each of these sites. Each group will be assigned to a different site, but for your assignment, you can select any of these sites for your post. You do not need to actually publish your post to the site, just compose it and turn it in as a digital document on D2L by next week (insert date).

WRITING ACTIVITY

Exploring Social Media Audiences and Formats

In your group, you will research the following questions and submit a typed copy of your answers to the D2L discussion board. Each group will be assigned one social media site to research, but when you write your post, you can choose which site you would like to write for.

• 1.       What is the audience for this social media site? How does that affect the way you should write your post?
• 2.       What are the requirements for a post on this site? For instance, Instagram requires a picture with each post and Twitter has a character limit for each tweet.
• 3.       What makes a post on this site effective? For example, what would catch the attention of potential readers and allow you to make the most impact?
• 4.       What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of using this site as a platform?

Rationale

This genre-exploring portfolio is intended for a first-year writing course at the college level.

Some of the components of this portfolio which I have fleshed out in more detail are an initial brainstorming activity, the social media post assignment and an in-class exercise to define social media audiences and formats.

·       The brainstorming activity invites students work in small groups to discuss and begin taking notes on topics they will explore in more detail throughout the course.

·       The social media post allows them to practice extracurricular literacies within the classroom, which may also extend into future endeavors.

·       As part of this social media assignment, students will work in groups to define the parameters of their post in context of different sites and potential audiences.

This project would enable students to explore multiple genres using a topic of their choosing. Depending on the length of the course itself, this may be a project which encompasses the majority, if not all, of the course. Allowing students to submit the final iteration of this project as a portfolio gives both the teacher and student to explore the student’s work as a cumulative whole, taking into consideration improvement from earlier drafts and the students overall accomplishments within the course.

The overall goal of this portfolio is for students to explore the same topic from multiple directions. The different genres require students to develop different types of writing voices based upon format and audience, with the goal of transferring these skills to future experiences.