Below are the instructions from the instructor of the course. I’ve attached PDF copies of the pages referenced as materials that can be used as sources or for help.
Purpose
An effective way to engage with the topic of writing is to consider how writing matters in various communities on a daily basis. This paper provides the chance to reflect in a personal way about a writing community you successfully joined by learning how to use the language and reasoning skills of that community. By using personal experiences and anecdotes, you will trace your movement from an outsider to an insider in a particular community. Examples of writing communities include a specific workplace, a sports team, a church community, a social or college club, a different country and language, a specific discussion forum–online or in-person.
Task
Write a 3-5 page personal narrative that explores a particular writing community that you are very familiar with and that you feel comfortable discussing with your peers. This writing community should be one that you have chosen, rather than one you were born into. Pick a clear writing community, explain and analyze the writing community’s specific language practices and value system, and show readers that you have become a full member of this community by learning those language practices. Follow these specific steps:
1. Include a main point or take-away (thesis) in the beginning of your essay to clearly indicate to readers what the essay is about and what overall point you wish to make.
2. Identify the community’s specific reasoning (logos), its values and emotions (pathos) and explain how you built your credibility (ethos) as a new community member.
3. Explain some of the tensions and limitations of this writing community: do some members demand or disapprove of certain language use?
4. Use what cultural anthropologist Clifford Geertz calls “thick description” in your essay to identify a particular setting, mood, and people’s characteristics (names, ages, etc.). Show, rather than tell, by using sensory details in your own writing that cue readers to visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and kinesthetic aspects.
5. Highlight one or two particular incidents (anecdotes) in which the community’s language practices are nicely evident.
6. You may use quotes from individuals of this community, or from texts the community uses. Make sure to integrate such quotes into your essay.
7. Your audience are your peers and myself, your instructor. Thus, tailor the language of your essay to us, your real audience, and use a style that is distinctly your own.
How You Will Be Graded
The Thinking about Writing Communities essay will be graded according to the following criteria:
· 3-5 pages (double-spaced)
· Selection of an interesting and suitable community
· Analysis of writing community’s language practices by concise and accurate identification of logos, ethos, and pathos
· Inclusion of specific anecdotes, using “thick description” to elaborate on events
· Evidence (in the form of examples/anecdotes) that support a clearly articulated main take-away (thesis)
· Use of persuasion and creativity to effectively convey the overall point
· Careful paragraph organization that creates cohesive overall structure
· Accuracy in formatting, grammar, spelling, and mechanics
Textbook Help
· “Introduction: Is Everyone an Author?” pp. xxix-xxxiv
· “Thinking Rhetorically,” pp. 5-17
· “Writing a Narrative,” pp. 186-228
· “Means of Persuasion: Emotional, Ethical, and Logical Appeals,” pp. 421-432
· “Meeting the Expectations of Academic Writing,” 35-49
Last Completed Projects
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