Unit 4 – Public Document
Length: Rhetorical Analysis: 500 words (single author)
750 words (multiple authors)
Public Document: 750 words (or equivalent)
Audience: General
Most professions utilize succinct, easy to understand public documents, such as brochures,
flyers, petitions and policy statements, among others, in order to identify themselves as a
community, communicate to outsiders or both. For this final assignment you will create one
of your own public documents. The goal of this assignment is to translate and transmit
esoteric information to a public of your choice: the general public, an at risk-group, a larger
group of professionals than the sub-group addressed in scholarly journals (for example, if
you wrote on the business of pharmacology you might create a document aimed at business
people in general). The form of this document could be a brochure, a popular article as you
might find on a popular website, a New York Times op-ed article, an NPR movie review, a
poster presentation, or even a twitter feed.
You should find an example of your chosen media and analyze it for what makes it an
effective form of communication. Does it use a lot of graphics? Does it rely upon the
presentation of statistical information or emotional appeal to persuade the reader? What is
the style or tone of the writing? Is it dry? Is it “dynamic?” Does it use colloquial or
conversational language? Slang? Think about what makes your chosen genre different from
the research paper (other than length). Keep these issues in mind when you construct your
piece and be sure to detail your observations in your write-up.
There are two parts to this assignment: 1) the actual item and 2) a write-up (approximately 2
pages) of why you created the document this way. For your write-up you will want to
analyze an example of what you’re doing. Also, think about how the creative choices you
made to convey your information and why you think they are effective or not. Say you are
writing for the New York Times, Who is your demographic, who do you want to
communicate this info to and why? If you are writing for a business audience, tell me which
one and why they should care.
1. You need not cite sources, examples, etc. on your document. Rather, you should do so
in the write-up.
2. Please be creative with your chosen media and attend to your choice of stylistic
conventions in the write-up.
Skills:
● Communicate complex ideas to a general audience.
● Use rhetorical tools to engage a broader audience.
● Be aware of how public documents circulate.
● Be aware of how public documents reach a broader audience.
● Understand how academic information is transformed into material suitable for
general consumption.
● Analyze and replicate a genre meant for broad consumption.
“Once you have read the textbook chapter, please complete a brief proposal on the genre you wish to write in for the unit four project. Finally, write a genre and rhetorical analysis of a sample popular document that you would like to use as your model for this fourth unit. Decide what genre you wish to work in for the final project, find an example online or elsewhere and then break down important elements of the genre, just like you did with the lit review and white paper.”
“I wanted to clarify that your popular document will ideally draw from the research you’ve done on your lit review and white paper. The idea is to take a subject and filter it through a variety of genres and rhetorical situations so that you can see how this impacts how you write to achieve the purpose of each assignment.”
“However, if you feel like you want to change subjects, then I’m okay with that. I would like you to still write on a topic that’s derived from your major (FINANCE AND MARKETING). But feel free to get creative with the assignment.I wanted to clarify that your popular document will ideally draw from the research you’ve done on your lit review and white paper. The idea is to take a subject and filter it through a variety of genres and rhetorical situations so that you can see how this impacts how you write to achieve the purpose of each assignment.”