Project Three Overview
For this project, you’ll focus on the same discourse community you selected in Project 2, and the guiding question builds on the work you did in that project: “How do I adapt my writing for this and other communities?”
You’ll answer that question in two ways:
You will create a sample of a writing genre (with an accompanying strategy explaining your genre) in a specific discourse community–a forum post, a set of memes, a Twitter thread, a web page mock-up, a print brochure or flyer, or any other kind of writing–and;
In a project analysis essay of about 3 to 5 pages, you’ll explain what knowledge you drew on to create that genre sample and the decision-making that went into it.
What you write for your discourse community can be anything you want, in any genre, but bear in mind that you will be asked to write a detailed essay about the sample you create, so it should be substantial enough to write about at length. And don’t worry, as with the previous project, you’ll be proposing ideas before we get started, so we’ll make sure you don’t select something that won’t work for this project.
You don’t have to share the genre sample you make with the community if you would rather not. Many students indicate that, while they find their selected communities interesting, they don’t necessarily want to participate in those conversations, and that’s fine. If you do share your genre sample, you can include any response you receive from the community in the project analysis at the end of this project, but it’s not required.
Project Analysis
No matter what you write for your community, the key to Project Three is the 3- to 5-page project analysis essay you will write, explaining your thinking or your writing knowledge behind the development of the sample, how you approached the writing of it and the strategy or decisions that went into creating it. You’ll also discuss the process of writing your sample genre. This will require you to both pay attention while you’re creating and to analyze that creation after you make it.
Prior to writing this essay, you’ll do a number of exercises that focus on concepts like genre, the conventions of different genres, and how conventions can be used or subverted depending on the situation. Those exercises will help you examine your own processes and decision-making, all of which will also help you write the project analysis.
In the project analysis essay, you may speak to any aspects of the project you like, but there are four areas to which you must respond:
Evaluate your own work in Project 3. Has it turned out the way you had envisioned, or are there things you would do differently now that you’ve had a chance to review.
Connect Project 3 back to Project 2. What ideas from Project 2 helped you when creating Project 3? Feel free to quote yourself from Project 2 to explain how the two projects are related in your mind.
Explain how you approached making your genre sample in Project 3 – What were the steps involved in making it? Beyond the work we’ve done in this class, what additional knowledge did you draw on, what was your strategy, what did you decide to do and why, and what factors did you consider as you planned the project.
Explore your thinking by reflecting. What do you take away from the creation of your genre sample and strategy – the product of your writing? What did you learn from writing it? What do you know about this genre and other genres of writing that you can think back on to help you in future writing situations?
Can the genre sample really be anything? As long as it’s appropriate to a college writing class and robust enough for the project, the genre is completely up to you. You will have to write about your strategic thinking, decision-making, and writing process for 3-5 pages, so something like a single tweet or brief comment on someone else’s forum post will not give you enough to write about. The more you can write for your community, the more you’ll have to analyze and write about. And remember, you’ll be proposing your idea before you start the project, so you’ll have a chance to assess and to check whether it’s a good fit.
Can I use something I’ve already written as my genre sample? No, that won’t work. Because part of the project is talking about how things you’ve learned in Project 2 factored into what you created for this community, it would be impossible to do that with something you created prior to Project 2. Take this opportunity to create something new and see what you’ve learned. The genre and strategy should reflect your growing knowledge from P1 and P2.
Project Analysis
In addition to the guidelines in the Project Three Overview, you might consider the following advice when writing the project analysis essay:
Contextualize your work. Your instructor probably isn’t as familiar with this community as you are, so make sure to explain what you made, how it might be similar or different to more familiar kinds of writing, and why this kind of writing is done in your community.
Discuss some of the practical aspects of creating your text. What materials, tools, or applications did you use? How long did it take to create? Did you have to learn anything new to create your sample text?
Discuss difficulties, frustrations, obstacles, or unanticipated complications with your genre sample? Sometimes we learn more from the things that don’t go the way we had expected, and every writing project will generally contain elements we’re more pleased with and elements we’re less pleased with, and you can discuss both positive and negative aspects of this experience. It’s all experience.
Re-read your Project 2 essay. Where do ideas from your earlier analysis of this community connect to your work in P3?
Think about your audience. Who in the community did you have in mind when you were creating your genre sample. What do you know about those members of the community? How did your knowledge of those people factor into your decision making?
Compare your work to other examples of this genre in the community. You might even include those other examples in your P3 reflection. Look for similar genres online – do a little research about the genre itself, looking at samples you find online that are not related to your community. What can you see about how a genre was created that works for you, that you can learn from some other context and apply to the context you are writing in?
What do you imagine people in this community saying or thinking, if you were to post this to the community? If you intend to make your work public, you can also discuss the actual response it received in the community.
Explain seemingly superficial, obvious, or minor details if they help the reader understand your work. Again, because you know more about this community than your reader, important conventions, ideas, and jargon may be so common that you don’t notice them anymore. Think about the questions someone might have if this was the first example of this kind of writing they’ve ever seen.