WRD 103: Composition & Rhetoric I Rotating Header Image

Argument / Advocacy Project

Genre: Op-Ed piece for the New York Times
Audience
: Your choice (primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences)
Learning Outcomes: Rhetorical Knowledge; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing; Knowledge of Conventions; Processes
Length: 1250-1500 words
Due Dates
:

  • Thursday 10/6: Statement of Purpose
  • Tuesday 10/11: First Draft
  • Thursday 10/13: Peer Editing Feedback; Workshop Participation
  • Tuesday 10/18: Final Draft

Your choice of projects:

Take a position on debatable topics and arguments that we’ve encountered in the NYT so far, or that you’ve come across yourself:

 Or, if you’re looking to explore more broadly:

  • Photo essays: define it and enact it
  • What representation of reality does the New York Times present?
  • Who is the ideal reader of the New York Times?
  • Select a topic of interest to you — social, cultural, economic, political; professional, creative, or community-based — and show how the New York Times covers and presents that topic historically and currently
  • Select a current news story and follow it for seven consecutive days: how does the New York Times cover and present that story?
  • Select a regular section of the New York Times and analyze how it is shaped — and shapes? — the domain that it covers
  • What are the rhetorical features of the New York Times’s visual and multimodal presentations?
  • Take a position: is it more productive to read the print or digital versions of the New York Times?

Background
The genre you’re working in is the persuasive academic essay. Our St. Martin’s e-Handbook is very strong in this area, and we’ll be using it at every point along the way in the planning, drafting, revising, and proofreading stages of your project’s development:

Rhetorical Situations

3a: Your rhetorical situation
3b: Deciding to write
3c: The topic or problem
3d: The assignment
Exploring, Planning, and Drafting
5a: Exploring a topic
5b: Narrowing a topic
5c: Drafting a working thesis
5d: Gathering information
5e: Organizing verbal and visual information
5f: Planning
5g: Drafting
5h: Your writing process
Constructing Arguments
11a: The purposes of argument
11b: Determining whether a statement can be argued
11c: Formulating a working thesis
11d: Finding good reasons
11e: Ethical appeals
11f: Logical appeals
11g: Emotional appeals
11h: Using sources in an argument
11i: Organizing an argument
11j: Designing an argument
11k: A student argument essay