Compose a piece intended for a specific audience in which you propose a solution to your community’s problem. This piece of writing will need to include both a problem and a solution as well as evaluation of your solution. Is this a viable solution? Why or why not? Because you’ll be composing a research project, the text you produce must be set in conversation with others’ texts about the subject and should seek to influence your audience by changing mood, mind, or action. What form your engagement takes, however, will depend on what you elect to compose. Strive as much as possible to create a meaningful text – one that you could use in real life. Goal here is authenticity! What would work best for your community in the real world.
You may elect to compose an article or opinion piece for a local newspaper, an industry newsletter, or academic essay, a letter to a politician, a proposal to a board of directors, a pitch to get funding for a non-profit, a speech someone would present. (Please note that this list is not exhaustive of the kinds of texts you might produce.) The length requirement for this assignment will be determined by the conventions generally observed in the genre and medium you have selected. That said, I expect you to compose a piece of significant critical depth and intellectual engagement – two characteristics that will likely culminate in a longer rather than shorter text. Generally speaking, you should aim for a piece that is over 1,250 words (roughly 5 pages) in length and incorporates at least four sources, but again, the genre you select will determine the length for your particular project and the number of sources you use.
To create a successful research project that meets its rhetorical purpose, you’ll need to, unsurprisingly, do some research. You already have a great deal of information and knowledge about your community. But that existing information and knowledge will need to be complemented by additional research as you construct your piece for a specific audience. In other words, as you likely did when composing your Visual Multi-media Artifact, you’ll need to look deeply into your subject and gather useful information such as statistics, quotations, and evidence from reliable sources.
