Project Three

Project 3 | Composing Multimodal Arguments

 Project Description:

Now that you have explored Safran Foer’s and other’s arguments in Project One and have explored the relationship you have with food personally in Project Two, you need to engage a topic that interest you and write a persuasive essay to convince people that you have the best possible solution. Through the first two Projects, you have moved from uninvolved/uninterested to an involved stakeholder who, hopefully, wants to enact change and inform and persuade other people to your side. This project asks you to think of how the information you have read has engaged you and helped form your stance on a position; then, you need to do the same for some specific audience.

To reach unengaged stakeholders, students—as rhetors—will select a target audience and focus their argument specifically on that group. The success of this project is largely dependent upon knowing who the audience is, why they are unengaged, what can be done to get them to care about the issue, and how they can become involved. In both the formal essay and the website, the identity of the target audience should serve as a catalyst for the rhetorical choices that are made to create a persuasive argument.

Project 3 brings the semester’s work to full circle. Students will use their understanding of the rhetorical situation to decide how to craft the most effective means of engaging their target audience and empowering the audience to take action related to their chosen issue. Credible evidence will be used to introduce the audience to current cultural conversations about the topic as a means of securing their investment in the issue. Finally, students must pick topics that are of larger, social concerns.

Assignment:

The project is comprised of three parts that will be graded proportionally:

Formal Essay: Students will compose an argumentative essay (1,000-word minimum - 1,200-word maximum) that (a) educates an audience of non-engaged stakeholders about the issue or topic; (b) convinces them that they should care about this issue or topic; and (c) argues that the audience should take action in some way.

Role of Research:

Students will draw on the research conducted in the past two projects, as well as supplementing their knowledge with additional current, relevant resources regarding the issue or topic. Project three requires that you use three sources, all of which can be the texts we have used in class, or your own, credible ones.

Writing Process (Formal essay):

Final Draft: The final draft* should be a polished essay** (850-word minimum - 1,200-word maximum) that (a) educates an audience of non-engaged stakeholders about the issue or topic; (b) convinces them that they should care about this issue or topic; and (c) argues that the audience should take action in some way. This draft should include a thesis, all major points, evidence to support these points (including in-text citations from appropriate sources), and a Works Cited page. The document should be free of organizational, grammar, and style errors and should follow proper MLA structure both in formatting the paper and citing sources. The final draft must demonstrate evidence of significant revision between drafts based upon instructor and peer feedback.

*Final Drafts that have not been significantly revised based on instructor and peer feedback are subject to a grade penalty.