Sarah Swofford Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description The purpose of this assignment is to help students develop a process for learning unfamiliar genres successfully. This assignment is the first part of a two-assignment sequence (the second part is “A Proposal for Change on Campus,” also found in Writing Spaces’ Assignment and Activities Archive) in […]
Genre Analysis of Project Proposals Read More »
Sarah Swofford Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description The purpose of this assignment is three-fold: 1) it helps students execute prior knowledge about genre so they are able to effectively compose unfamiliar genres of writing; 2) shows students how their writing skills are useful in professional and not only academic contexts; and 3) teaches students
Proposal for Change on Campus Read More »
Massimo Verzella Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description This assignment is informed by a pedagogical tradition that emphasizes the connections between the fields of writing and translation (Matsuda; Horner and Tetreault), a connection that becomes even more relevant in technical communication (Gnecchi et al.; Petts et al.). Just like writing, translation is process-based, iterative, and
Writing, Translating, and Revising Menus: An International Virtual Exchange Project Read More »
Andrew H. Yim Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description In this activity, which will take around 3-4 weeks, students are tasked to research one discourse community (e.g., college club, job, volunteer organization) that they have never joined or recently became a member of. They need to pick out the 6 elements of the organization including:
Discourse Communities Manual Presentation Read More »
Michele N. Zugnoni Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description The development of a social support system is one of the greatest factors in college student success. Without such a system, students experience a sense of isolation and loneliness (Tinto 4). 28.4% of college students report feeling socially isolated (“Loneliness, Resilience” 3). 64.7% of college students
The Time Capsule: A Narrative Composition for Developing Social Support Systems Read More »
Julie C. Bates and Sarah Warren-Riley Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description The Activist Archival Project we assign in our classes is well-suited for a composition course with an emphasis on writing for social change, community-engaged writing, and/or social justice. In this project, students work either in person or online documenting examples of social or
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Jeanette Lehn Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description In my class on public rhetorics, I strive to empower students to possess agency in speaking to an unbounded global public with the understanding that all rhetors are constrained and imbricated in complex systems. Cooper writes, “Rhetors—and audiences—are agents in their actions, and they are responsible for
Getting in Conversation about Activism: Group Podcast Assignment Read More »
Megan Heise Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description First-year writing classes (can) provide a fertile ground for student exploration of meaningful topics that impact them and their broader communities both within and beyond the Ivory Tower. Research-based writing courses, in particular, can open up spaces for students to dive deep into areas that are important
Kelly Scarff Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description The Problem Statement is a collaborative assignment that helps students approach writing as a problem-solving tool, incorporate discipline-specific language in their writing, and identify safety or accessibility issues in their community. In teams of three, students identify a safety or accessibility problem on campus or in the
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Matt Hill Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description The activity is meant to encourage thinking about sonic pollution in our world and about the rhetorical nature of such pollution. It could also move into other sonic topics: effects of noise on hospital care, effects of anthropogenic noise on the natural world, how military sonic technologies
Our Sonically-Composed Worlds Read More »
