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Course: English 1102 Instructor: Anthony Borrero Email: Aborrero@uncc.edu Major Assignment #3: The C.A.P. (Context, Audience, Purpose) Project Introduction: Throughout this semester, we have come to view inquiry and research not as solitary acts, but rather, as acts of discourse between multiple writers, speakers, and sources. While our former project allowed us to observe the discourses surrounding your topic of inquiry in order to understand the various stances, positions, and arguments being posed, for our current project, you will not simply observe others responses to the discourse, but instead, will develop your own response. In order to complete this project, you will re-examine the various conversations surrounding your topic; select one stance or argument posed by a source that you would like to respond to; and articulate your own response to that source and the greater conversation through your writing.

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The Theory Behind the Project: While the core of this project centers on you formulating your own stance, position, or argument about your topic and developing that discussion by using references and research, this project is also focused on cultivating a greater awareness of the three basic elements which impact all writing context, audience, and purpose (hence the title of this assignment the C.A.P. Project). In order to begin this project, you must not only understand each of these elements, but must also consider how they will shape your thinking and the writing that you produce. Context: What conversations and/or circumstances are you responding to? Audience: Which person or persons are meant to hear your response to the conversation? Purpose: What do you hope to accomplish in your response, and what do you want your audience to do with the information they gain from your piece?

Please keep in mind that these three elements must be considered thoroughly before you begin writing in order to assure that your writing is focused and is working effectively to achieve a specific goal. III. Assignment Description: Below you will find a general overview of the steps you must take to complete this project. Step 1: Deciding What to Respond to In order to compose a piece of writing that responds to a conversation, you must first recognize what conversations are taking place, and decide what stance, position, or point you will respond to. Before you begin writing, you should re-examine the various stances, positions, and arguments surrounding your topic in order to recognize what has been said. While many of these stances and positions may be found in your annotated bibliography, you may find that you need to do additional research and move beyond the scope of your bibliography in order to understand what people are saying about your topic. After surveying what has been said about your topic, you should select one text or source that conveys an argument, position, or stance that you would like to respond to. The texts or sources you may respond to includes but is not limited to news or journal articles, books, speeches, letters, laws/policies/legislature, web-sources, films/documentaries, or representations of your topic within the media. That said, no matter what source you pick, keep in mind it must pose a clear stance, position, or argument about your topic and should merit a response from you, as well as other scholars and researchers who are involved in similar conversations. Step 2: Identifying Your Purpose & Audience Since all writing is purpose driven, it is important to know what your purpose is up front so that you are aware of what you should be working towards with the writing that you produce. After identifying the argument, stance, or position that you would like to respond to, you must then consider how you will respond, and who will serve as the target audience for your response. To do this, you must formulate your own position, stance, or argument about your topic, and select a specific audience who you will be writing to. With respect to the response you may pose, some options include, but are not limited to, posing a view that counters the discourse you are responding to, posing a view that agrees with and expands the argument in order to establish a more convincing appeal, critique and rhetorical analysis, or debating various view in order to reconcile multiple arguments. Regardless of the nature of your response, remember that your writing should be working towards a particular purpose and your piece should be able to justify and support why you are pursuing this stance.

Course: English 1102 Instructor: Anthony Borrero Email: Aborrero@uncc.edu As for audience, please note that your response does not necessarily have to be directed towards the author of the piece you are responding to. Depending on your purpose, you may choose a different or wider audience base, such as the executives of the FDA, Congress, those in the medical or food production field, or even a particular sect of society, such as individuals who do not have access or health care or those who are engaged in a certain form of medical treatment. In short, your writing should make it clear who your intended audience is, and your narrative should be written with that audience in mind. Step 3: Formulating Your Response Being that context, audience, and purpose heavily impact the both what we write about and how compose that writing, it is important to consider how the means through which you compose your response will allow you to connect with your audience and accomplish your goal. Rather than composing a traditional academic paper, consider other genres that will allow you to enter the conversation more effectively and appropriately. Among the genres you may use for your response, some include: A letter A newspaper, magazine, or journal article (placed in a specific source) A speech transcription (consider the context of where and when it would be delivered) A blog

While you may choose another alphabetic genre, textually-limited genres such as art pieces, posters, films, tweets, texts, and image-centered web pages are not allowed for this project since they will not allow you to engage your discussion in depth or incorporate sources effectively. Should you choose a genre beyond the four mentioned in the bullet points above, you must get approval from me before proceeding forward or your project will not be accepted for submission. Finally it should be noted that while there is not specific page length requirement, your piece should strive for depth and complexity by providing extensive background context, thoroughly developing your position and stance, and using substantial amounts of support and research to reinforce your claims. IV. About Sources & Citation: Being that this is a research based project, you must engage with sources extensively in order to make your writing developed, credible, and ingrained the conversations surrounding your topic. As with past projects, I cannot dictate the amount of sources you must engage with or the types of sources that will allow you to respond to your purpose effectively. While you may use any of the sources you gathered when completing your annotated bibliography, you must also use additional sources, which includes but is not limited to, news or journal articles, books, speeches, letters, laws/policies/legislature, web-sources, films/documentaries, images or charts, or representations of your topic within the media. Finally, keep in that since this course is oriented towards writing in an academic context, the sources you use should be credible, academic sources, must be cited within your writing using MLA documentation methods, and should be accounted for in your works cited page. V. Due Dates: th th Project Proposal: M/W classes: Mon., March 18 (3/18) T/TH classes: Tues., March 19 (3/19) th th Solid First Draft: M/W classes: Mon., March 25 (3/25) T/TH classes: Tues., March 26 (3/26) th th Project Due: M/W classes: Wed, April 10 (4/10) T/TH classes: Tues, April 11 (4/11)