For my WP3, I’ve decided to work with Doug Downs’ What Is First-Year Composition? Downs’ article focuses on what first-year composition is, and whether or not it has out-grown our current society. In short, first-year composition is an introductory core curriculum writing course that focuses on improving students’ abilities to write in a university setting and introduces students to writing practices in the disciplines and professions. The opening paragraph of Downs’ article discusses the definition of first-year composition depending on the person being asked within society including a politician, parent, or professor for instance. Before Downs goes into specifics on first-year composition he attempts to tackle what is actual “good” writing. After a short discussion he deciphers that “good” writing is socially constructed. Downs then attempts to explain the origin and importance of following an obligatory core curriculum in high school, to give the reader additional information on how the first-year composition course was derived. The key aspect of Downs’ article is that overall, “good” academic writing becomes about avoiding breaking the many socially constructed rules and sticking to the Harvard writing format as best as possible.
To morph Downs’ piece into two completely new genres, I have selected genres that appeal to age-specific audiences. For the younger audience, I will use an email written by a literature teacher that targets middle school students. The second genre will be a Yahoo Answers post, that primarily targets a more mature audience.
Younger Audience
Genre: Email
Target Audience: A class of grade 6 students obligated to take literature class (11-year-olds)
Scenario: During the first week of (middle school) instruction, the students constantly complained about how much they hated literature, and instead wanted to study something they enjoy. The email has been sent on the first weekend of instruction, addressed to the students of her literature class.
Genre Subject: The email will be a welcoming passage to the students in her literature class, along with a brief explanation as to why the students must study the set curriculum, rather than being able to choose their own subjects.
Conventions: The email will be set out professionally; including a line to address the class, a welcoming paragraph, an explanatory paragraph (on why they study core subjects), a concluding paragraph, and a sign-off. Because of the young audience, the language will be basic and comprehensive to an 11-year-old, and the tone friendly and calm. The email will also be short, because often younger people have shorter attention spans. In addition, the email will include multiple emoji’s and a couple of colorful pictures somewhat relevant to the email, so that the children are more likely to positively react.
Mature Audience
Genre: Yahoo Answers Post (including questions and answers)
Target Audience: Mature person seeking a definition and different perspectives on first-year compositions.
Scenario: The Yahoo Answers questioner will be Jaimee Gilbertson from Australia, who is new to the American schooling system and wants to know the exact definition of first-year composition. There are then many respondents that represent specific members or groups in society. These members include Doug Downs (the author), a parent, a politician, a person of the general public, a professor, a student, a graduate teaching assistant, and the (FYC) institution.
Genre Subject: In Yahoo Answers, users have the opportunity to ask a specific question, whilst other users respond to the question to receive points. The highest rated answer voted by the public is displayed at the top of the “answers” segment.
Conventions: Generally following the “question” posed by a Yahoo Answers user, there is a “context” blurb written by the questioner that gives the viewers a slightly more comprehensive explanation on what the user is asking. Below the “question” and “context” segments of the Yahoo Answers page, there is the “answers” section, where it lists each of the respondents answers. The answers will be a couple of sentences long, and use highly intellectual language to fit the target audience.
I have some questions regarding my proposal, so please feel free to answer them or make any additional suggestions!
Questions:
- Should my “mature audience” genre be more professional? Because the people who are involved (politicians, professors, parents etc.) might not be inclined to use Yahoo Answers, because of its lack of credibility. Perhaps a more formal writing blog could be used instead?
- Should I make the Yahoo Answers questioner someone other than myself? Maybe an anonymous user, or perhaps a student in a particular academic field?
- Should I include information about obtaining “points” as a user on Yahoo Answers? Or is it irrelevant?
Jamiee -
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I loved the way you formatted this PB. It made everything extremely easy to find/understand. Second, I really, REALLY like your idea for the younger audience. It's extremely interesting and creative. Since you are addressing children as young as 11, you have a lot of freedom with how you write. You can use fun, colorful language and pictures in your email. I also think you did a very good job of hitting all the key conventions of an email, especially one aimed towards a younger audience. As you wrote, the email should be short, as children don't like to read long emails and they don't have a long attention span. Moving on, I like your idea for the older audience, but I agree with you in your "Question" section that you may want to make it more professional. I feel like Yahoo Answers is typically used by younger people, as older people would probably look to more reliable sources to find answers. That being said, maybe you could do some kind of an article on a website about writing that an older audience would read. One more thing, I am a little confused about what you mean by question 3. What are points? Anyways, good luck on your WP3, and I absolutely cannot wait to see how you end up executing it!
Piper Harris
Jaimiee,
ReplyDeleteYour PB's are always engaging and fun, I love how you always go above and beyond by including images, emojis, and other media elements that make your work stand out! You seem to have a very good outline for exactly how to structure your WP3, and I think that if you follow up with this plan it will turn out fantastic. Regarding your questions, I think that there is a significant yahoo answers community and you can definitely make it work as long as you format your questions and answers with a professional tone. I don't think you should worry about the 'points' or much else besides the questions and answers, although including some of your signature image/media moves would really help make your WP3 exceptional! For the email portion of your project, are you going to try to frame the teacher's writing in a strict or laid-back way? I feel as though all teachers have slightly different styles, and you should definitely find a specific way to express this in your project. Can't wait to see the finished project!
Gilbertson,
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of transforming Downs’s FYC piece to a English teacher’s email to his/her class about WHY they’re studying what they’re studying (in this case, writers and writing process and genre, compared to the “Great Works” canon of literary novels, etc.). However, I don’t think that this would be super-appropriate for 6th grade students. Do English teachers send their 6th grade students emails? They might, but is it a part of their typical routines for “Welcome!” messages? You’re feel to free otherwise, but I think what might be a more realistic and purposeful transformation here is a similar “Welcome!” message to high school Seniors—especially since it’s the year right before they’ll be taking their FYC course. Another idea, although this would be towards an older audience, would be sending a similar email to kids’ parents to let them know why they’re studying what they’re studying. (“We’re doing things differently this year…”) And, as you’ve noted, this should meet the conventions and expectations of whatever email-y genre you’re creating. (Remember, though: “email” as a genre is pretty broad. You can get a lot more specific—what KIND of email?)
The Yahoo thread sounds like a neat idea. (I’m wondering, though, why Yahoo compared to other threads?) Regarding your questions, I think that the “professional” issue depends on who is writing—these different people might be writing in different ways, don’t you think? I’m not sure what you mean by “points” in Q3, but for Q2, I think that message from someone outside the American school system presents an interesting perspective. I also like the questions/answers from profs in other disciplines—nice idea. You could also include FYC students from other schools who are taking non-“Writing About Writing” courses. Just to key you in on that last comment: some schools treat FYC like 13th grade, essentially—students write essays about… stuff. I call this the “Writing About Anything” approach (instead of genre, exigence, audience, purpose, evidence, etc) and it’s still common (unfortunately, in my not-so-humble opinion) in many colleges today. Putting these folks into the mix could create some neat dialogue about what people are studying, what they think about it, etc.
You’ve got a ton of possibilities with this scholarly piece, so rock it out, be deliberate and purposeful with your decisions, and have fun.
Z
Jaimee,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with Piper and Tyler when they say that your PB was very well formatted/easy to follow and that you always tend to include outside elements such as pictures, to enhance your work. It makes it engaging as a reader and keeps me interested. I think that your two genre transformations are very unique and it will be easy for you to put your own voice into both of the pieces. To answer your question 1, I think that it would be beneficial to change it to a more professional audience fitting genre. I think it could strengthen your paper, but overall i appreciate how specific you were with your game plan and am excited to see the final outcome.
Great job,
xoxo Jrey
Hi Jaimee!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your blog post and Zack’s comments I had a bit of an idea that I think may answer some of your questions as well. Perhaps one idea would be to take what Zack said, making the email about a writing course sent out to the parents, and making this your transformation to a mature audience. I think that as far as the Yahoo Answers piece goes, this could maybe then become your transformation to a younger genre (such as for middle and upper-schoolers). I think what’s great about your idea is that you could really do it either way; the way that you initially suggested or flipped around. Something to keep in mind with that, however, is to make sure you distinguish the genre as to be fitting for either an older or younger audience. I’m sure you won’t have a problem doing this, but just something to think about since the genres could likely go either way!
Jaimee,
ReplyDeleteReally cool ideas! I really liked the way you went about your PB3A because it makes it really easy to follow along. I liked how you made up scenarios instead of just saying what you intended to do, it really helped me visualize and really understand the idea you're trying to bring to life. In regards to your question, I think that you should use something more formal, because yahoo answer has a bunch of "interesting" questions posted. Do you think maybe this could be a better option for the younger audience? Do you think the emails would be better suited for the adult audience?