Using Rhetorical Media to Meet Outcomes
and Satisfy Stakeholders
Unit 3:
The students will begin working in groups in this segment. During this portion they will be tasked with choosing a topic for their documentary and then divide it into subtopics. Each student will select a subtopic on which to complete their own research. They will begin with completing an annotated bibliography on their subject. Then, they will compose a rhetorical media argument using modalities they deem most appropriate to their subject matter. They will accompany their research project will a memorandum that analyzes the modalities they selected and why those were appropriate to their subject, audience and purpose.
Unit Goals: In this unit, students will
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1.establish norms for working within a group.
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2.understand how to engage in research using library databases.
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3.think critically about modality and delivery appropriate to rhetorical situation.
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4.adhere to non-academic genre conventions.
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5.adapt their composing process to non-academic genres.
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6.compose in an electronic environment that uses more than one modality.
Goal Justification:
This unit asks students to work collaboratively with others. This collaboration will require that they establish roles within a group, navigate conflict and compromise. The success of the group in the next unit will be dependent upon the participation of each group member in this unit. Therefore, this unit aims to increase student engagement, and ultimately success.
Once they have established their group, they will divide the labor and research aspects of an agreed upon topic individually. This research will require the knowledge of the conventions of online databases.
Once the students have collected their material, they will determine the appropriate means for delivering their content based upon their understanding of rhetoric. They will select modalities that will allow them to most effectively reach their audience and will be asked to do so in such a way that blends more than one mode. This blending will help challenge them to think and compose from a critical standpoint.
To provide experience in the emerging technologies that may be important to them in the digital workplace they will join, students will be asked to choose modalities that exist in the electronic environment specifically.
Sample Capstone Prompt: Documentary Research Assignment
