On the Audience/Genre Revision

What It Is

As you know, you must choose a different paper from your portfolio than for the research-based revision, choose a different audience/genre than the original paper (e.g., a print or electronic magazine or journal), map out a strategy for revision and get feedback on your first revision in a peer review session, and turn in your final revision of the paper along with its earlier incarnations (original paper, first revision, reviewer's comments/suggestions) and an explanation/justification of your revision choices.

What For

This assignment is meant to fit with the "Looking Out" section of the course. Think of it as your opportunity to take a paper written for a course (the genre of which is typically an expository, argumentative, or persuasive thesis-driven essay and the audience of which is typically an individual instructor or peers in the course) and develop it into a piece of writing of a different genre and for a wider audience or to take a piece of journalism or creative writing and revise it for submission to a publication venue of your choice. This assignment is meant to get you to think about the relevance of writing you've been doing in the major to audiences outside Fredonia.

How To

By 7 pm M 2/11 you must email the course listserv giving your preliminary plans for the audience/genre revision. This early deadline is so that you make a decision quickly about which story, paper, or article you've written that you want to revise into a different medium and/or genre and tailor for a new audience. Then you'll have plenty of time to do the kind of research and analysis that the workshop Nelson Graff will be running the next day, T 2/12, will teach you how to do. In this email, you should (1) describe the paper, article, or story you chose to revise and explain your reasons for choosing it ("the text" section), (2) describe the process by which you decided on a different audience or genre or medium for the piece and explain your reasoning ("the audience/genre" section), and (3) describe specific journals or magazines you can imagine publishing your piece in and explain which is your top choice and why ("the publication" section). Please be sure to indicate when your plans are firm and when they are tentative--this first email doesn't have to be perfect, but it should represent your best sense of your revision plans as they stand on 2/11. So although you will not be required to treat this email as a blueprint or contract (it's not written in stone!), and will probably change your plans as you proceed with the actual revisions, you should do the best you can in the time you have. Any major changes to your revision plans should be sent to the course listserv along with a rationale for the change.

On Tuesday, May 7, you must bring a rough draft of your revised work to class for a peer review session.

Assignment Sheet

Due: Monday, May 13, 2002, no later than 5 pm, in my mailbox in the English department main office (277 Fenton) or in the envelope outside my office door (240 Fenton). Along with the revised work the the reflection, you must turn in the original work, portfolio review form, revised draft, and form with reviewer's comments/suggestions.

Format: The revised work itself and the reflection on your revision process and choices should both be double spaced, with reasonable fonts, font sizes, and margins; have a title that indicates main argument of paper; a heading that includes your name, the course name or number, and the date; a bibliography and citations in MLA style (see links page for explanations of this style of citation); use proper MLA quotation format for quotations within a paragraph--"..." (12)--and for quotations five lines or longer.

Criteria for Evaluation: Your grade will be determined by your performance on the following criteria: (1) coherence and persuasiveness of the reflection on your revision process and choices: how well do you explain and justify your revisionary work? (2) effectiveness of the audience/genre revisions: how well do you change the kind of work it is and/or target your work for a different audience than it was originally intended for? (3) quality of the revised work itself: how well does your revised work stand on its own as a piece of writing?

ENGL 400: Senior Seminar, Spring 2002
Created: 2/7/02 4:52 pm
Last modified: 5/9/01 10:46 am