Project #3 Option 2: Public Writing
(Writing to a specific public)
Audience: Public (specific “public”)
Length: around 1500+ words total (including proposal, document itself and memos…but know that genre choice will greatly affect length)
The goal of this project is to identify an area where public education about an issue in your field of study could be effectively achieved and could have a real impact. You have worked this semester analyzing and developing the various “voices” and techniques appropriate to a professional and academic audience. Here, you will translate your expertise for a public (though still limited) audience. This is a key component of this project—the subject area must come from your field of study in some way. Perhaps, try combing through your materials from Project 2 and think about what content would be valuable and interesting for a public audience who, most likely, doesn’t know much about your topic (or if they do, it’s quite limited).
Public writing can seem like an easy choice, but it presents interesting challenges. To begin, it’s important to remember that there is no such thing as the ‘general public’ in the sense that everyone will access any given document. Every public writing piece has a specific audience, the audience most likely to engage with that text. This means you have to be very thoughtful about the audience you are trying to reach, assessing who they are, how they would access this document, what they already know, and what they need to know. It’s also important to remember that when writing a public document, access is an important issue. How will your audience get their hands on or view your document? And since they do not have to read this text (unlike a workplace or scholarly piece), how will you get and hold your audience’s attention?
The form your project takes will depend on the information you are trying to communicate and how your audience is most likely to access it. You might create a brochure, a poster, a web page, a handout, a video, a blog, an op-ed article etc. What you choose to create must make sense for your audience and for the setting in which your audience would access it. I will post several sample projects so you can get an idea of some of the possibilities. And keep in mind that Digication provides a straightforward web page building tool if you decide to create something along that line. We will discuss design and some of the available tools and templates you might use as well.
Your document/webpage/etc. must look professional, and must be designed and written to meet the needs of the audience you have identified.
Elements of the project:
• Proposal to be evaluated by your working group for viability
• Project itself
• Context Memo—I’ll include a Context Memo template for you to follow in terms of content and formatting. Think of the Context Memo as a streamlined, revised version ofyour Proposal. This document is necessary for evaluation during peer reviews, so that your readers understand your approach to the work (as everyone is writing in different genres and for different audiences).
This memo will be addressed to the class and will put the workplace document into context: explain anything that needs explaining about how and where it is used, by whom, etc. You will be able to help us read the document effectively. Aim to explain your intended audience, thesis, purpose, and persona.
Getting Started
For the Brainstorm – think about why a public audience mightneed to know about your topic from Project 2 or from the business field… what do they need to know and why? What ways could you translate the information into a digestible approach and genre?
After you Brainstorm and have a sense of what you might want to do, you will develop a proposal for your project that will include an example of the type of document you are creating and typical of your field, so begin thinking about the kinds of public writing you encounter in your discipline.
The Proposal
You will write a proposal (500-700+ words). The proposal will be evaluated by your working group for viability.
The proposal should include the following:
1) A statement of the goal of your project.
2) A clear definition of the characteristics of the audience you are addressing. You want to remember that all audiences are specialized in some way. No document is meant to truly address the “general public.” Rather, documents address specific groups of potential users/readers. You may base your analysis of the potential audience on both research/statistics and on work/academic experience. Your information should be as current and accurate as possible, and should consider characteristics such as age, gender, ethnicity and race, educational level, attitudes toward the topic, level of knowledge and awareness, etc. This is your way of defining the characteristics of the public you are planning to reach. For instance, if you are planning to address students at Northeastern University and want to encourage students to manage their money more effectively you would want to find out as much demographic information about “Northeastern students” as possible, and then consider if there are any specific populations in that larger group most in need of this type of document etc. You might include data on the “typical” college student and their finances.
3) A detailed plan for the kind of document you propose to develop to meet the goals of your project. Address:
— Access. How and where would the intended audience most likely access this information? Be thoughtful, not just “at school” but where, how would they see it, get hold of it, etc. This can be one of the most challenging aspects of this project as you do not have a built in mode of distribution as many of you did with the workplace project.
— Genre. What kind of document would best meet the needs of this audience? Will it be a newspaper article, a poster, a flyer or brochure handed out at an event or in specific location? Why?
— Design. In a rough way, what are the elements you imagine being included in the document? How will that design meet the needs of this audience?
4) Attach a copy of the type of document you plan to create and include here a discussion of how these types of documents are used by a public, general audience.
This proposal does not need to be presented in standard essay form, though each section should be in complete sentence/paragraph form. You may use headings to separate the sections of your proposal if you like, but they are not required.
Note on Citation: Some public documents do not quote sources or cite them in ways typical of academic writing. For this project, I’d like you write in imitation of a form appropriate to your field. If the kind of writing you are imitating does not include quotations, notes, or parenthetical references, do not use them yourself. Instead, think about alternative methods (like hyperlinks or a resources section) and include a bibliography on a separate page. In addition, be careful that your document consists of your own language, and any material quoted or referenced is properly credited.
Goals for this Assignment
• To clearly identify an issue within your report or your field that can be translated for a public audience in a way that would have significant impact and be genuinely useful. In other words, create a document with real practical value.
• To clearly identify the characteristics of the potential users/readers of this document.
• To present the specialized information that you plan to convey in a way that is easily accessible to your audience, but does not talk down to them.
• To think carefully about the ways in which this document will be accessed.
• To choose a type of document (genre) appropriate to that setting and use (i.e., brochure, poster, article, etc.)
• To design a document that meets the needs of the user and the context. Those design elements might include the organization of text, the visual design of the document, the use of graphics. Etc.
• To clearly define the issue, the public audience, and the uses of the document in your context memo.