Written Assignments

Revision of Former Essay

For this assignment, you will revise either your art-on-campus essay or your report. Revision here means more than editing: It means “re-seeing” the subject. As such, you should plan on including additional material, reorganizing your thoughts, and doing a significant amount of writing and rewriting. Your original paper, then, is simply a springboard for your revision.

Planning and Drafting

As you begin this assignment, look over your original paper as well as the comments on it. Which areas of the paper need the most improvement? Where can you offer additional development or clarification? Where can you offer more introspection or a discussion of significance? Have you changed your mind about anything that you wrote in the original paper?

Then set aside the paper and begin writing down some new ideas about your subject that may have come to you since your first writing. Go back and forth between the original material and your new material and begin to weave the two together. Be careful not to dig a hole for yourself by getting stuck on the phrasing in your original: Just begin from scratch and see what happens.

Read or reread appropriate reading selections in Writing in a Visual Age (pp. 175-177) and The Brief Pelican Handbook (Ch. 5, pp. 55-61) for advice in revision, focus, and development. After you have rewritten your paper, check your paragraphs for topic sentences, edit each sentence carefully, and evaluate the effectiveness of each word choice. The paper you finally submit should synthesize the writing and thinking skills you have developed throughout the term, so you should take care in constructing your final draft.

With your final draft, include any drafts, notes, etc. Also include the draft of this assignment that was previously graded. In addition, attach the sheet that explains your revisions.

Some Evaluation Criteria: Paper

• demonstrates a thorough rethinking of the subject
• contains additional material appropriate for audience and purpose
• is well organized—contains a clear thesis and coherent paragraphs
• avoids errors that are distracting to the reader

Revision of Former Essay

1. Describe large additions that you made to your paper and explain the benefit of these additions.
2. Describe portions of your paper that you chose to delete and explain the benefit of those deletions.
3. Describe how you re-organized your paper and explain how this benefited the paper.
4. Describe any other changes (editing for mechanics, visuals added, etc.).

Objectives

• Write a profile essay (500–800 words) about a person or team/group assigned in class (we’ll use class time for interviews and observation).
• Observe, during the course of the assignment, the place where the person or team/group works or carries out activities that serve as the focus of the profile.
• Give an impression of the person’s, or group/team’s, unique characteristics.
• Work in teams of four in class to create a profile newsletter, using good design strategy and reading audience awareness.

Assignment

The person(s) we will interview and persons/place we’ll observe will be announced in class. In class we’ll practice interview and observation techniques. Interview the person (or persons) and observe the place they work, play, or carry out the activities that make up the focus of the essay. For example, if we interview students in an art class, observe their activities and ask questions about what they have learned, what they are currently doing, and why they are interested in art. The interview and observation MUST be done by you during the timeframe of this assignment.

Steps for the assignment:

• Create appropriate interview questions.
• Attend class the day of the interview and observation.
• Take notes, including direct quotes from the person(s) and your observations.
• Take or obtain a photo of the person or team/group in action. A digital camera will be available during the interview and observation time.
• Present in writing what you have learned in a way that informs and engages readers.
• Arrange profile in a team newsletter.
• Option: send your profile subject a thank-you note and copy of the profile.
• Work in teams to develop a profile newsletter.
• Present profile newsletter to class and possibly the person or team/group who are the focus of the assignment.

Newsletter

After profile rough drafts are written and while final drafts are being revised, work in teams of four to compile a single newsletter incorporating the four profiles written by members of your team. Format it as a newsletter, using principles of effective visual design discussed and practiced in class. Microsoft Producer is helpful software for formatting the document, although Word and other programs work well. Each team's completed newsletter should contain these features:

• Newsletter title that fits the focus of the profiles
• Date
• Page numbers
• Pull-out passage or quote in each article
• Attention-catching title for each article
• Writer's byline for each article
• At least one photograph for each article, with a caption and credit to photographer

Organization

• Create an introduction that grabs readers' attention.
• Create a thesis statement that states the impression you want to get across.
• Use topical order, chronological order, emphatic order, spatial order, or a combination appropriate to the content of your essay. The logic of the organizational pattern should guide readers through the content.
• Use transitions to show relationships between ideas and move readers from point to point.
• Provide a thought-provoking conclusion based on your interview and observation.

Visual Presentation

Each team will share its newsletter in class using the projector. Each team will have up to five minutes. Other students in class or I can ask for more information or ask questions if we’re interested or the presentation seems too short or incomplete.

First, comment on the choices that you made in designing your newsletter. Decide who will comment on each item in the following questions:

1. Explain the choices you made in designing the document.

• How did you decide on a newsletter title that fit all four essays? How is it effective for your reading audience?
• Why did you select your design or color scheme? How is it effective in supporting the content of your profiles?
• How effectively have you guided the readers' eyes to the starting focal point and led them through the document? How have you used hierarchies effectively?
• How does the layout balance positive and negative space? What does this contribute to the effectiveness of your newsletter?

2. Next, individually, tell about your subject, the impression you wanted to convey, and how you met two of the outcomes on the grade rubric. Give specific examples.

—Michelle Ramthun and Julie Hoesel, Iowa Central Community College

Part 1 Reflection

Include multiple artifacts to demonstrate the qualities below. (Put in first 2-pocket folder.)

• Thorough

• Thoughtful

• Honest

• Forward thinking, as well as backward assessing

Part 2: Process

Include multiple artifacts to demonstrate the qualities in the chart below. (Put in second 2-pocket folder.)

• Quantity of artifacts shows engagement with process

• Quality of work shows a “good faith” effort: e.g. risk-taking, “get-and-give” attitude, openness, concentrated effort, work that’s more than perfunctory (“I’m doing the minimum I can get away with and only because it’s an assignment”)

• Meets deadlines: work done consistently on time.

Part 3: WOVE Products

(Put in third 2-pocket folder.)

3.1 Written compositions

Include at least 2 chosen from Comp 1-5 to demonstrate the qualities below.

Context

• Involves reader early

• Gives clear sense of question, problem, or motivation behind the composition

• Establishes a clear relationship between the writer and situation

Substance

• Includes detailed examples to develop ideas

• Focuses on suitably narrowed subject

• Uses facts and other kinds of evidence responsibly

• Gives precise definitions of key terminology

Organization

• Has clear thesis/claim

• Structured to present an overall coherent argument

• Contains well-developed, unified, coherent paragraphs that avoid being rigidly formulaic

• Uses transitions within and between paragraphs to clarify logic and purpose of ideas

• Contains audience-oriented headings when appropriate

Style

• Uses verbal expression (voice and language) suited to the audience and situation, including precise, meaningful wording; a preference for active, rather than passive and other “to be” verbs; and only purposeful repetition

• Adheres to appropriate usage, punctuation, and grammar conventions

• Shows careful proofreading and documenting

3.2.1 Oral Communication: Small-group work and group discussions

Include multiple artifacts to supplement instructor observation and to demonstrate the qualities below.

Context

• Uses team thinking

• Listens actively

• Offers constructive comments, intelligent questions

Substance

• Recognizes other team members’ ideas

Organization

• Summarizes actions or issues at key decision points

• Helps develop productive procedures

Style

• Uses motivating, non-threatening, directive, relationship-building language

Delivery

• Exhibits clear, interested voice, gestures, facial expression, eye contact with team members

3.2.2 Oral Communication: Presentations

Include multiple artifacts to supplement instructor observation (and possibly videotaping) and to demonstrate the qualities below.

Context

• Shows a clear purpose

• Uses an appropriate level of formality

• Considers audience needs

Substance

• Includes substantive, worthwhile, audience-oriented content

Organization

• Creates clear logic through use of introductions and conclusions, repetition, cueing, enumeration, etc.

Style

• Maintains audience attention through language choices suited to the oral situation

Delivery

• Shows attention to volume, gestures, eye contact, facial expression, posture, etc.

3.3 Visual Communication

Include 1 or more artifacts to demonstrate the qualities below.

Context

• Creates a holistic visual impression to fit the situation

• Quickly communicates overall purpose

• Provides rich supporting detail

Substance

• Includes informative, relevant, reliable visuals

• Uses decorative and/or informational images as appropriate

• Has a meaningful title/heading

• Shows cultural sensitivity

Organization

• Creates clear visual patterns with purposeful variations

• Guides viewer eye movements through adherence to accepted design principles

• Uses visual chunking to match emphasis and function

• Maintains a consistent visual theme

Style

• Achieves clear, purposeful foreground-background contrast

• Selects appropriate graphic style, typography, and color

• Documents sources

• Headings are logically and grammatically parallel

Delivery

• Shows audience/user-based technical decisions about color, resolution, size, luminance, format, sharpness, etc.

• Crops images concisely and achieves a polished, professional-looking appearance

3.4 Electronic Communication

Include 1 or more artifacts to demonstrate either or both of the qualities below.

• Effective use of electronic communication mode

• Effective composing in the electronic mode

Purpose

After working for a semester on WOVE (written, oral, visual, electronic communication), you’re now equipped to consider what you’ve learned about these modes of communication as you compile your end-of-semester portfolio.

Besides serving as the basis for your course grade, this portfolio has a more important function: to offer you an opportunity to reflect on and assess your communication growth over the last few months by analyzing the different parts of the portfolio and discussing what its artifacts show about that growth. Although you’ve reflected on your work in small ways during the semester (for example, on your composition cover sheets and in your group-discussion log), you will now compose an overall reflective/self-assessment letter for your portfolio that

• introduces its contents

• explains how the artifacts you’re including show your communication abilities

In addition to an overall reflective letter, you can also attach short reflections to individual artifacts that indicate what you believe they show about your communication competency (how they meet the criteria by which they will be evaluated—see “Final Portfolio Parts with Grading Criteria”).

By creating your portfolio and reflectively assessing it, you’re revisiting the topic of Comp 1 (you as communicator) from a new, end-of-semester perspective, recognizing, I hope, that you’re a different communicator from when you began the course in January.

For your overall reflective/self-assessment letter, I’d suggest that you choose the genre of a friendly letter addressed to me, the audience for your portfolio. As you’re composing that letter (and, if you choose to compose additional shorter, artifact-specific reflective pieces), keep in mind that effective reflective self-assessment involves

• thinking carefully and deeply

• explaining the “why” and “how” of your ideas as specifically as possible

• using the specific wording of the evaluation criteria in your discussion

Following are ideas for effectively writing this reflective self-assessment friendly letter. Feel free to expand on or modify these suggestions in any way that enhances the presentation of your work.

Introduction

Open your reflection with a short introduction that sets the context for the reporting of the reflective assessment of your work, which comes next in the body of the letter.

Body

Then divide the body into the following main topics of your portfolio: reflection, process, products (using headings and sub-headings, if you like, to separate these parts):

Reflection

Explain how reflection artifacts you’ve chosen to include demonstrate the following qualities on which they will be evaluated/graded (See these grading criteria also in “Final Portfolio Parts with Grading Criteria.”):

• Thoroughness

• Honesty

• Forward-thinking, as well as backward assessing

Process

Discuss what you’ve included in the process section of your portfolio in terms of the criteria on which they will be evaluated/graded (See these grading criteria also in “Final Portfolio Parts with Grading Criteria.”)

• The quantity of artifacts you’ve included and how this amount demonstrates your engagement (in other words, your interest and effort) in the development of your abilities in analyzing and composing WOVE “texts,” reading, researching, critical thinking, working with others, etc.

• The process artifacts you’re featuring for their quality, explaining how they demonstrate your “good faith” effort in taking on the work of the course (i.e. how they show risk-taking behavior to push yourself to try new things, a “give-and-get” attitude that invests something of yourself in your work, a concentrated effort, work that’s not just perfunctory—the minimum you can get away with to earn credit for an assignment—etc.), in other words your interest in and independent directing of your own learning

Products

Discuss the product artifacts in your portfolio

Written

Two compositions of your choice, selected from Comps 1-5: Look at the rubric under 3.1 on “Final Portfolio Parts with Grading Criteria,” and discuss how the polished drafts you’ve decided to present meet these standards.

Oral

Small group

Discuss how the artifacts you’ve chosen to include (I’ll also draw on observation notes and videotapes) show your use of the productive group behaviors laid out in “3.2.1 Oral Communication: Small-Group Work and Group Discussions” in “Final Portfolio Parts with Grading Criteria.” For a fuller discussion of productive group behaviors, also refer to the document “Elements of Small-Group Work.”

Presentation

Think about your part in informal presentations we did during the semester and your formal poster presentation; discuss how these examples of your public speaking meet the standards of effective oral presentations as laid out in “3.2.2 Oral Communication: Presentations” in “Final Portfolio Parts with Grading Criteria.” For a fuller discussion of effective preparation and execution of oral presentations, also refer to the document “Elements of Oral Presentations.”

Visual

Explain how the one or more visual artifacts you’ve decided to include in this section meets the standards of effective communication in the visual mode as laid out in 3.3 “Visual Communication” in “Final Portfolio Parts with Grading Criteria.”

Electronic

Highlight one aspect of your work in 250 that involved the electronic mode, providing at least one artifact.

Discuss how what you’ve included shows your ability to effectively use or compose in the electronic communication mode. (See chart under 3.4 “Electronic Communication” in “Final Portfolio Parts with Grading Criteria.”

Conclusion

Close your reflective/self-assessment letter by explaining how, overall, your portfolio shows your skills and growth in communication this semester (i.e. What conclusions, considering the parts of your portfolio and your self-analysis of these, might someone who doesn’t know you draw about you as a writer, reader, oral communicator, and composer/consumer of visual and electronic media from examining your portfolio—and, perhaps, how might this person grade it?)

Submission

Bring your completed portfolio to my office, Ross 425 during our university-scheduled final exam period.

Audience and Purpose

The audience for this project will be the general public (as found in many newspapers) yet designed specifically for a younger audience. This project is designed to entertain as well as inform readers about a specific topic. As noted in The Daily Tribune, the Mini Page is an on-going series. Therefore, the intent of this project is to create a page similar in concept, yet based around biology. I hope this project becomes a series in which BEST students contribute each year.

Your purpose for this project is to inform your intended audience about a topic you believe will be of interest to them. Younger audiences want information presented in an easy, fun way, so make the material easily accessible and visually appealing.

Goals

➢ To perform research over a specific topic (covered in Annotated Bibliography)
➢ To use a variety of research materials (covered in Annotated Bibliography)
➢ To construct an argument for a specific audience
➢ To work with visuals and text while creating a document
➢ To analyze a document

Topic choices

You and your partner will use your topics from your Annotated Bibliography assignment to design your page.

Planning and Drafting of informative argument

I have shown you various examples of “The Mini Page” taken from The Daily Tribune. Each page featured a very specific topic and used multiple media styles to explain/discuss the given topic. Text blocks were used; photos were included – all with captions and/or text blocks near them; word puzzles and other games – highlighting the topic – were provided for reader interaction, jokes, recipes, interviews with people, even ads (only 1 per page!!) were used. After a reader finished all the reading and other activities on the page, he/she would be informed about the topic under discussion.

You and your group will create a layout for a page similar to “The Mini Page”. You are designing the prototype of a page that you hope will be turned into a series and published regularly.

I will provide each group with a pressboard sheet 14 1/2” by 37. This will be the background for both the page you create and the explanatory notes you provide (analysis) about the layout. The informational page itself will be approximately 13” by 23 1/2” and will be centered on the backboard.

Contents of your page

1. A title – which would reflect the idea that this page is the first of a series of pages to come; i.e. perhaps something catchy like “BEST Biology” (sorry, you can’t use that title without my permission☺)
2. An author line for your names (under title block – and not the largest text, please)
3. Two large blocks of text with minimal visuals – these will make up the majority of the page
4. An interview section – or biography section about a person connected with your topic
5. A vocabulary activity for readers to enjoy – vocabulary must reflect the topic (perhaps create a simple crossword puzzle or word search)
6. A fun fact section, which should contain some interesting, unique facts about your topic
7. A line drawing which could be colored with pencils/crayons
8. Other blocks of your own invention

Once you have created/designed the page and printed it off, you will need to center it on the backing material I will give you and prepare the analysis.

Analysis

On the backing board, you will mention the following – not in paragraph or even sentence form -- you will provide JUST THE FACTS about the specific elements of your page. This information will take the form of notes – explanatory notes for your editor (that’s me).
➢ Title – font, size of type, color, placement location importance (just the facts)
➢ Font used for text – size, color, type (not why; just the facts)
➢ Vocabulary – size of block, color, etc. (Again, facts only)
➢ Biography/interview block – appropriate size of block (facts)
➢ Size of blocks for all material provided
➢ Etc.

Finally, individually, each of you will write an analysis essay for me. This is the place for sentences and paragraphs. This is the place where you provide the “whys” for the above information. Why this/these:
➢ Title – why this title, why this font, color, placement on page, etc
➢ Specific text for the main textual paragraphs – why did you choose that size, color, font, etc.
➢ Include biography/interview component – why this style/type
➢ Have a vocabulary activity – why this particular activity
➢ Particular text fonts, sizes, colors – why did you select/use these
➢ Graphics – why that particular placement, that particular graphic

Evaluation Criteria

The visual

➢ Features a catchy title
➢ Includes your names in a smaller block
➢ Contains two large text/visual blocks
➢ Includes an interview/bio section
➢ Includes a vocabulary section
➢ Contains fun facts
➢ Contains a line drawing – or other interactive component
➢ Features thoughtful placement
➢ Utilize appropriate fonts, colors, sizes of text/visuals
➢ Remembers audience – i.e. not too cluttered or too empty
➢ Is error free

The individual essay

➢ Fairly and adequately analyzes the visual.
➢ Provides adequate support or evidence to support your analysis
➢ Projects a reasonable tone
➢ Thoroughly discusses choices made during construction of layout
➢ Has well-organized and coherent paragraphs
➢ Maintains a cohesive, understandable sequence of paragraphs/information
➢ Uses correct format for an academic essay
➢ Includes a worked cited page – including visuals, interviews, etc.
➢ Contains few if any correctness errors

The presentation

➢ PowerPoint used
➢ Creative title
➢ Author names provided
➢ Introduction (narration) good with audience appeal
➢ Grammar correct
➢ Body information – highlights only
➢ Conclusion definitely signals end (say Thank You or something)
➢ Visuals appropriate for topic
➢ Face audience/comfortable body language/smile
➢ Logical order
➢ Excellent narrative support
➢ Consistent slide background
➢ No distracting flying in/out of objects or noises

The reflection over presentation essay

➢ Clear introduction which captures readers and introduces topic
➢ Fairly and adequately analyzes the presentation
➢ Provides adequate support/evidence for your analysis
➢ Projects a reasonable tone
➢ Has well-organized and coherent paragraphs
➢ Presented in logical order
➢ Includes examples from presentation
➢ Contains few, if any, correctness errors

Assignment by Bob Corey, developed in conjunction with Alzire Messenger Fall 2005. Based on an idea from The Daily Tribune-Ames, IA