Draft: Information Effect
PLEASE USE MY LOCAL SOCIAL ISSUE WHICH IS A REFUGEE ISSUE WHEN ANSWERING THIS ASSIGNMENT AND REVIEW THE INFORMATION EFFECT PROJECT GUIDELINES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ASSIGNMENT AND REVIEW THE EVALUATION CRITERIA AND REMEMBER REFERENCES PLEASE.
Please review the Information Effect Project Guidelines before submitting your draft.
As long as you submit your draft on time, Canvas will automatically assign drafts for peer review. You can then read and respond to these drafts, but if you submit your draft late I have to manually assign your reviews. Please notify me immediately if this is the case or if you may not be able to participate in the upcoming peer review assignment. Note on the file format for text-based documents: Submit your profile as a file in either .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf format. Note on the file format for multi-media documents: If possible, submit a link to where your project is hosted on an external website where your project is hosted (such as youtube, SoundCloud, etc.). These formats allow Canvas to display your work so it can be peer-reviewed. See the Learning and Technical Support page for tutorials on how you can convert files to meet the file format expectations on this assignment.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
To receive full credit for your draft, it must
Be submitted on time
Meet minimum length requirements:
Text + image documents should be about 750 words or 3 double-spaced pages
Image-based drafts (like photo essays, infographics, comics, or political cartoons): shoot for at least 10 images and include at least 50 words of descriptive/explanatory text per image
Organize, present, and explain information on a specific aspect of your local issue for a defined local audience and the purpose of your choice
Integrate and cite at least five sources, two of which come from the SLCC Library Databases. You must document your sources in such a way that a reader would be able to trace back, find, and examine them. This includes some form of in-text citation for every source, and some form of works cited or references section at the end. MLA Links to an external site.and APA Links to an external site.are two academic citation systems you can use if you want to follow a specific guide.
Information Effect Project Guidelines
From our narrative effect projects, the flash memoir and profile, we now move to the information-based text (the only information effect project). This page will help you understand the requirements for the project, but you will learn more about this project as you draft, receive feedback, and revise the project over the next few weeks.
The Information Effect Project: Interpreting, Selecting, Assembling, Explaining, and Presenting Information
Recall from the first week of class when you learned about the various effects, that when writers foreground the presentation and organization of information for a specific audience, they’re using the information effect. Your main goal for this assignment is to produce an information-based text that organizes, presents, and clearly explains information on a specific aspect of your local issue for a defined audience and purpose of your choice. The information effect can be seen in reports, but also in informative texts like infographics, fact sheets, informational posters, FAQs, explanatory documents, research-based reports, etc.
The Occasion, Audience, and Goals
As you research and write your information effect project, one of your primary challenges is to identify a need for particular information and then select, assemble, explain, and present information in ways that respond to the human needs that you identified. There are a number of ways to go about identifying a need for information, but one way to focus on finding it is to think about people related to your issue (there are many) and how they might use the information in specific locations and situations. If you can locate your report in a particular occasion and situation, then you can begin to reflect on what makes information valuable, or not, to the audience in that situation. Consider whether they already have access to information and, if they do, consider how you can provide information that gains its value by standing in distinction and relation to what already exists, or perhaps you realize an absence of information and a clear need.
With so much information out there, how can you even start? You might set a goal to quickly narrow the scope of information you’re interested in finding. Use this project as an occasion to step back from your issue to review the information you’ve already collected and what you know and need to know more about. This means you’ll look at sources you’ve already collected to more carefully observe what they reveal about your issue individually and alongside other sources. This means, too, that you should review other texts you’ve produced that may hold valuable information about your issue (e.g., notebook entries, previous projects, discussion posts). As you work with the information you have, you should think about and identify a reason for writing: a need for accessing and assembling the information in particular ways so that you can present that information meaningfully to an audience that needs it. Once you’ve determined a need for writing and assessed the information you have, you should collect more information based on the occasion and goals you establish for your project.
Minimum Requirements
Text + image documents should be about 750 words or 3 double-spaced pages.
Image-based drafts (like photo essays, infographics, comics, or political cartoons): shoot for at least 10 images and include at least 50 words.
You must use at least five sources, two of which come from the SLCC Library Databases. You must document your sources in such a way that a reader would be able to trace back, find, and examine them. This includes some form of in-text citation for every source, and some form of works cited or references section at the end. MLALinks to an external site. and APALinks to an external site. are two academic citation systems you can use if you want to follow a specific guide. Regardless of the citation system you choose, use consistent citations throughout your project, and make sure you do not include a list of pasted URLs at the end of your document. If you need more help with citations, check these links to an external site. out.
The Information Effect
Writers foreground the information effect when they foreground the selection, explanation, and presentation of information in their texts. Information-focused pieces typically have a public purpose: the sharing and representation of information with the public. Keep in mind that information-based texts downplay overt argumentation and are therefore less likely to foreground claims that are based on opinion and point-of-view. Rather, information-based texts typically feature an authorial stance that is focused outwardfor instance, first person is usually not a strong feature of information-focused genres (although it’s also not unheard of); the writer of an information-focused piece keeps the reader’s attention on the information at hand. Information-based texts gain their value by providing access to relevant and timely information for people acting or needing to act, in particular locations and situations. In this sense, writers of information-based texts create value by dealing with quality information (verifiable, credible, useful information).
Genre + Medium + Mode: Making Your Writing Matter to People
In this project, we want to draw your attention to the ways that texts move in writing situations, and how your decisions about your genre for this project will influence the mediums and modes of delivery you use too. All three of these thingsgenre, mediums, and modesinfluence a text’s ability to circulate among members of a community. You have many potential avenues for this piece: you can choose a text-based piece (it’s a classic!) with visuals that communicate information (graphs, charts, maps, etc.); you can choose a multimedia piece, such as a presentation of some sort with voiceover; you can make an infographic; you could do an audio piece; or you can do a hybrid text that draws on any number of genres/mediums/modes. These possibilities are not exhaustive. If you choose a text-based genre, though, think carefully about the medium you use to publish the text and make it encounterable by others, particularly those individuals among your target audience. A Word document in itself won’t suffice. A lone PowerPoint won’t cut it.
Try This Out
Find a graph that displays information relevant to your information effect project. Look closely at the information in the graph. Observe the kinds of information it includes; consider how it assembles various information types; notice how it organizes the information; determine where and how it explains information for readers. Once you’ve spent time with the information presented in the graph, add a caption that contextualizes it for viewers and shapes what they notice about the information. Finally, create a brief paragraph that connects up to particular information in the graph, or that adds to or extends information seen in the graph. How can you work your graph into your information effect project, and is this technique of assembling applicable to this project?
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AND USE MY LOCAL SOCIAL ISSUE WHICH IS A REFUGEE ISSUE WHEN ANSWERING THIS ASSIGNMENT AND REMEMBER REFERENCES PLEASE
