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English 1121 Project
Working in Groups: A Collaborative Study of the Art of Persuasion
Main Assignment | Plan
for Completing this Project | Process Memo
| Project Requirements | Additional
Readings
Goals:
1. To work collaboratively with other writers on an assignment.
2. To explore how texts (words and images) get the readers' attention
and cause them to change their thinking or behavior.
3. To practice using a model for rhetorical analysis.
Main Assignment
Working with a partner, choose one of the following options:
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Select or invent a product or service and then create a one-page (8 1/2"
x 11") advertisement for that product. Obviously, in doing so, you'll want
to consider visual qualities as well as word choices. You may want to use
PowerPoint or PageMaker, available in the computer lab, to create your
ad. You may also choose to create your ad as a Web page.
In addition to creating an ad, write an explanation of your ad's
persuasive qualities: purpose, language and image, audience, context, and
evidence (P.L.A.C.E.).
OR
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Rather than creating your own advertisement, analyze two different ads
for the same product or service. First analyze the persuasive qualities
of each ad; then compare and contrast the two. In doing so, you'll want
to consider the visual qualities as well as word choices of each ad. Use
P.L.A.C.E. to guide your analysis.
Go to the Student Center in the Commons to learn more about
writing
groups.
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Plan for completing this project
There are two parts to this project: collaboration and persuasion. Each
part involves writing, reading, and thinking..
Part I: Learning about Collaboration
Step 1: Writing
Do some free-writing or make a map about the experiences you have had
as a member of a group or team. What was good about this experience? What
was bad about it? How do you feel about working with a partner on this
project, "A Collaborative Study of the Art of Persuasion"?
Step 2: Reading
In the New Centruy Handbook, read:
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"Collaborate," section 4c
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"Build community through electronic mail," section 21b
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"Collaborative writing via networks," section 21a-4.
Step 3: Thinking
Meet with your partner and discuss how you are going to work together
to complete this project. You may meet on line, on the phone, or in person.
For tips about meeting online, read "Small
Conference Groups." You and your partner should each have signed
up for the same small group conference
room for this class.
When you meet with your partner, you should answer these questions:
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Which option are you going to choose?
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What strengths do each of you have to share in this work?
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Part II: Learning about Persuasion
Step 4: Discovery Writing
Do some free-writing or make a map about a time when you were persuaded
by an advertisement to buy a product or service. Describe what you remember
about the ad? Why did it persuade you?
Step 5: Discovery Reading
Step 6: Discovery Thinking
Together with the other students in the class, practice doing P.L.A.C.E.
analyses with sample ads selected for class discussion.
Step 7: Planning Collaboratively
With your partner discuss how you can best work together to draft your
analysis. Using your map or outline, will each of you draft different sections
of the analysis? Or will one of you compose a first draft and then the
other revise that for a second draft and so on, taking turns to develop
the paper? Perhaps one of you was the artist who did most of the work in
creating the ad; now the other partner, the analyst, will draft the analysis.
Experiment with different ways of working together. Keep in mind that teams
work best when the partners feel they are contributing equally to the accomplishment
of the project.
Go to Planning at the Writers' PLACE and
review the strategies for asking questions, gathering information, locating
sources, mapping and outlining.
Step 8: Thinking collaboratively
Thinking about P.L.A.C.E.: Using the questions listed in the P.L.A.C.E.
map, discuss with your partner the persuasive qualities of the ad(s) you've
selected. How effective is each ad in accomplishing its purpose with its
target audience? What gives the ad its strongest impact? Language? Images
and graphic details? Evidence?
Step 9: Drafting collaboratively
About P.L.A.C.E. Make detailed notes about your analysis of each of
the five elements of P.L.A.C.E. Then make notes about your findings. If
you created an original ad, how effective is your ad in accomplishing its
purpose with the target audience? If you are comparing and contrasting
two published ads, how are the ads similar? How are they different? What
do these similarities and differences have to do with the ads' purpose(s)
and target audience(s)?
Use outlining or mapping to create a pattern of organization for your
notes. Decide with your partner how you are going to draft your paper.
Is each of you going to write a section and then you put the sections together?
Or are you going to sit down at the computer together to write a first
draft? Write a first draft of your analysis.
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See a sample student paper: "Ad Analysis" by
Tina Christopherson and Paula Denny.
Step 10: Giving and Receiving Reader Response
View the PowerPoint presentation "Working
in Groups: Giving and Receiving Reader Response."
Throughout the drafting process, your team should meet regularly with
another team to share your work and give feedback on your drafts. Keep
in mind the different kinds of responses writers can seek from readers
at the various stages of the writing process. Ask your group the questions
that seem most appropriate and helpful to you at the time.
Keep notes of your questions and your readers' responses as you work
together. Use these notes to answer the question asked in the prompt for
your process memo: "What kinds of response did readers give you when you
shared your work with your group?" In your process memo talk about how
your readers' responses were or were not helpful to you.
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Process Memo
Write a one- to two-page process memo that answers these questions:
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How did you and your partner decide which option to choose?
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How did you work together as a team? How did you divide up the tasks to
complete the project?
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Who came up with the ad idea or located the ads you chose?
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How did you work together to design your own ad or analyze the published
ads?
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How did you plan your analysis together?
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How did the two of you handle note-taking and drafting?
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How did you share the work of the final draft?
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What kinds of response did readers give you when you shared your work with
your group?
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How does this collaboration compare with other teamwork you have done in
the past?
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What advice would you give other students attempting this assignment next
term?
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Do you have any questions about your writing or this class?
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Project Requirements
To receive credit for this project, you each must turn in
___ your own notes
___ any working drafts you may have
___ the final draft of your group's report
___ your individual process memo.
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Additional Readings
Brockman, Elizabeth B.
"'English Isn't a Team Sport, Mrs. Brockman': A response to Jeremy."
English
Journal 83(Jan. 1994):60.
Christopherson, Tina, and Paula Denny.
"Ad analysis." (Sample student paper).
Elbow, Peter, and Pat Belanoff.
"Sharing and Responding." A Community of Writers. (2nd ed.). New
York: McGRaw-Hill Inc., 1995.
Han,
Sang-Pil.
"Persuasion and Culture: Advertising Appeals in Individualistic and Collectivitistic
Societies." Journal of Experimental Psychology 30(July 1994):326.
Keller,
Punam Anand.
"Increasing the Persuasiveness of Fear Appeals: the Effect of Arousal and
Elaboration." Journal of Consumer Research 22(March 1966):448.
Page,
Loraine.
"Not Without Each Other." Writer's Digest 74(Nov. 1994)50.
Peracchio,
Laura A.
"Evaluating Persuasion-enhancing Techniques from a Resource-matching Perspective."
Journal of Consumer Research 24(Sept 1997):178.
Samuelson,
Paul A.
"On Collaboration." The Economist 40(Fall 1996)16.
Toyama, Jean, Eleanor Wilnor and Neil Altizer.
"Renshi: a Linked Essay on Linked Poetry." Michigan Quarterly Review
36 (Winter 1997):87.
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