Posted: March 7th, 2015

Annotated Digital Argument

Annotated Digital Argument

Order Description

This project asks you to fine-tune your writing skills at the sentence and word choice level (skills we will refine during week 9,) while turning your rhetorical awareness towards a genre of argument in the digital sphere.  If you remember all the way back to the first day of class, you’ll recall that this course focuses on argumentation in the public sphere, and these days, public discourse pretty much exists in digital space.

It’s up to you to choose what digital genre you’d like to use; Twitter, Facebook, Amazon reviews, email, other social media platforms your ancient instructor isn’t familiar with, would all make good choices.  There are two things you should keep in mind when selecting a genre:
1) it has to be in some way digital, and 2) this project isn’t meant to be huge, or in any way a traditional essay—think around 100-200 words.

It’s also up to you what your argument is.  You might complain about how long it’s taking that burger place to open in the MU, or about the low quality of dental floss you ordered in bulk online, or about the inherent iniquities in a recent international trade agreement.  And of course your argument doesn’t have to be a complaint at all.

It’s also up to you who your audience is, but you should make sure it’s an audience that needs or wants to hear your argument, and an audience that you can reach through your chosen genre.  And, as always, you should make sure your audience is specific, and not general.
The project consists of two drafts:
•    The Annotated Draft is due in class on March 11.  Before class, you will annotate your draft, making note of the rhetorical and stylistic choices you made.  Make sure you indicate on your draft both your intended audience and your chosen genre.  During class, you and your group will further annotate the draft with ideas for revision.  You will take this draft home with you so you can then make those revisions for the final draft.  However, I will check that you have your annotated draft with you in class on March 11.  Even though I won’t be collecting this draft until you turn it in with your final on March 13, you still must have the draft on Wednesday to get credit for it.  If you don’t have the draft on Wednesday, you’ll get a zero for the draft even if you turn it in on Friday.
•    The Final Draft is due in class on March 13.  You ARE required to actually post/publish/send your digital argument out into the digital world.  You’ll need to post it before class, and then you’ll bring a hard copy, printed out, on paper (I do see the irony there), to turn in to me in class.  You may email me a digital version of your project ONLY if it’s actually not printable, i.e. it incorporates a video.  If you email me your project and when I look at it I see that you could in fact have printed it, you will automatically lose 20 points.  And, either way, you must turn in your Annotated Draft on March 13 in hard copy form.