Compose a statement of purpose for your A2 Storify project
This is an exercise in establishing clear, precise language to guide yourself, and to convince others that you’ve done the work to make a viable plan—that you’ve made yourself qualified and capable of pursuing this project. Divide your statement into the following categories, and label them like this: Purpose: Quickly, tell us what you’re doing and why it’s worth doing. Situated Ethos: Describe any relevant true things about yourself you’re carrying into this project. What is your prior experience with this subject? How might these elements of your identity need to be addressed openly? How might they influence the ways an audience understands and judges what you produce? Invented Ethos: Describe the tone, persona, etc. you think it most appropriate to adopt for his particular rhetorical situation. Explain why. Audience: Define a few broad categories of audience who would most likely read a Storify project on this particular subject. What assumptions and expectations would each likely carry into their reading of your work? Context: Consider the time, place, medium, previous narratives of your subject, and anything else that surrounds the text you will produce for A2. What are the most relevant contexts for you to consider as you work? Why? Risks: Identify potential risks in you doing this project in the way you’ve decided to do it. What rhetorical effects will you work to deliberately avoid? How will you try to avoid them?
FORMAT: Maximum 600 words, double-spaced, 1” margins; put your name, my name, the class, assignment number, and date in the upper left corner of the first page; number pages in the upper right corner; staple pages; have a title.
Start with a much more specific version of this: “What does it mean that we’re talking about this particular topic in these particular ways?” Once you’ve selected a conversation, gather sources from appropriate stakeholders. Analyze the rhetoric of each source, but find ways of connecting your analyses to each other. Synthesize your interpretations of each source into an evolving thesis of your own that questions how we’re talking about this subject right now, and why those rhetorical patterns matter. Avoid questions made from overly simple binaries (yes/no, right/wrong, good/bad, agree/disagree, positive/negative, like/dislike). Instead, ask questions that pursue appropriate complexity, such as those that begin with phrases like “To what extent,” and “In what ways.” Your evolving thesis should compile multiple sources to tell a story about the conversation around your research question. Your “story” (your synthesis) should be clear about what is at stake, what the different perspectives on this problem are, and how and why those perspectives differ. We will use Storify (storify.com) to create and frame a “story” about the conversation around your research question. You’ll embed links to sources, summarize the relevant parts of them, analyze the rhetoric of those details you describe, and connect them to your summaries and analyses of other sources. Storify projects are publicly visible, so anyone will be able to read what you produce. You will post the link to your project on Blackboard. No formats other than Storify will be accepted. Storify calls attention to what writers have always done: curated sources for their readers, define scholarly and public conversations, and synthesize and juxtapose opinions and arguments. Bibliography: Include this at the very end of your project. Cite properly in MLA style. Types of research to include: Minimum of ten sources. Consider: Does the conversation you define about this issue comprehensively cover what is at stake, the various perspectives—the major stakeholders? How credible are these sources? How influential are they?
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Statement of Purpose for A2 Storify Project
I have always loved electronics since I was a child. I remember the first time my dad bought me a toy van and I deconstructed it the same day. Surprisingly, he bought me a bigger one next day to see what I would do. Although we studied Science in junior school, it did not provide an opportunity for me to build on my interests.
(844 words)