“One should connect language learning with either work or leisure. And not at the expense of them but to supplement them.”
—KATO LOMB

OVERVIEW

Think back to your experiences in content area high school classes such as algebra, history, biology, and art. You may recall being assigned to read textbooks or other documents and then complete assignments or projects related to readings. As you think about the texts you read in each subject, how were they different from one another? Were ideas presented in sentences and paragraphs, or did texts include symbols, graphs, charts, videos, and/or applications? Did you use the same or different strategies to comprehend texts in different classes?
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Whether or not you noticed, the texts used in your classes differed in important ways. Chances are, texts that were used in algebra likely contained many symbols, figures, and examples but few photographs. Texts that were used in history probably contained many photographs, along with sections featuring timelines and excerpts of historical documents. Texts that were used in biology were probably structured according to biological systems such as circulatory, endocrine, and respiratory. Texts that were used in art may have consisted mostly of photographs, paintings, drawings, or sculpture, depending on the art class you took. In effect, the texts used in your classes likely did not differ arbitrarily but differed in predictable ways directly related to the systems, traditions, and content of each academic discipline. Based on differences among texts, research has shown that different literacy strategies can be used to improve our understanding of discipline-specific content.

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Disciplinary literacy focuses on the differences among the various texts used in different disciplines and the specialized reading practices required for comprehension and critical analysis of ideas within each. Some of these differences include specialized vocabulary, types of language used to communicate ideas, text structures and features (e.g., boldface headings and vocabulary, diagrams, charts, photographs, captions), and sources of information within and across disciplines. This assignment will ask you to analyze the language and literacy characteristics of a single topic in a discipline of your choice (preferably a field connected to your program of study and/or future career goals). 

​For this 3-4-page essay, you will write a rhetorical analysis essay in which you examine select rhetorical and linguistic features in your field of choice as presented in: 1) two peer-reviewed articles and 2) one "public" artifact (pamphlet, website, proposal, policy paper, newsletter, memo, etc.). 

Additionally, if you are aiming for an "A," on this assignment, you will conduct a short interview with an expert in your field (professional, scholar, practitioner, etc.) either in person, remotely, or through email. 1) First, you must first choose the discipline you want to study. 2) Next, you will settle on a topic within that field. 3) Then, you will locate resources (peer-reviewed article, public artifact, expert in the field, 4) Finally, you will compose your analysis based on your findings.

To accompany your essay, you will create a simple infographic to explain your findings. For more information about infographics, see below.

"I am learning the Language of World and everything in the world is beginning to make sense to me."
​—PAULO COELHO

DETAILS

DISCIPLINARY LITERACY NARRATIVE (DLN)

Your written narrative should be 3 - 4 pages and and should:
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WHAT.  The aim of your rhetorical analysis is to share with your intended audience your interpretation of the text’s important rhetorical features. In other words, rather than focusing your attention on critiquing and evaluating the text, your task is to examine how the text is rhetorically designed in order to appeal to its intended audience. You will, of course, need to contextualize and summarize the text; however, you’ll focus mostly on analyzing what the text is doing, and why.

HOW. Select two or three leading journals or other professional publications in your academic major or any other academic discipline in which you are interested.  Next, conduct a rhetorical analysis of the writing which appears in them. Consider the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the articles and other materials that appear in the journals? Talk about this purpose as a whole; then select one or two articles and discuss their purpose in detail. Be sure to give concrete examples and details.
• Who are the intended audience of these publications? What specific elements in the writing which appears there can help us decide?
• What are the genre expectations of this field? What kinds of writing will you be expected to do in your career or academic discipline?
• Consider the structure and format of the writings in the journals. How do they connect with the purpose of the writing and the intended audience? For instance, what kinds of evidence or citation systems do their authors’ use?

You’ll assert your interpretation (thesis), and you’ll support your points using evidence in the form of examples and short quotations from the texts.

INFOGRAPHIC

WHAT IS AN INFOGRAPHIC?
Infographics are visual representations of information. They can include numbers, text, images, or any combination of the three. Infographics can take on any of the various rhetorical modes (informative, instructive, descriptive, persuasive, etc.) and they provide authors with a quick way to convey a lot of information. 

AUDIENCE.
​Researchers and writers in different academic disciplines do what they do because they have a certain rhetorical purpose to fulfill and a certain audience to reach. In order to make their research understood and to enable others in their intellectual community to follow their ideas and theories, academic writers conform to the expectations of their readers. For this assignment you will tailor your infographic to a "novice" or "newbie" in your academic discipline/field. 
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Your infographic should be a single page/poster that is:

• ​focused: one single message; emphasize its significance;
• graphic: graphics and images tell the story (fewer words is better); visually appealing 
• ordered: the sequence should be obvious and logical; simple flow paths and cues should guide the reader.
• accessible: easy to understand and digest in a short period of time

There are many programs out there to create infographics, so I encourage you to choose the platform you feel most comfortable with. Beginners, or students who are new to infographic design, may be best served by easy-to-use free software such as Piktochart or Canva, or even using PowerPoint.

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"I can feel the power of the words doing the work. Must trust language more.​"
--ANTONY SHER

BREAKDOWN OF ASSIGNMENT GOALS

1) Audience

 For this assignment, you’ll tailor your rhetorical analysis to a a popular audience who may not understand the rhetorical and linguistic context of your field. In other words, imagine your audience having limited knowledge of the type of texts, language, and rhetorical and structural elements of your discipline. How can you make this information readily accessible and understandable to your audience? Your purpose, argument, and evidence should be tailored to appeal to your audience. And, part of meeting any audience’s expectations is to draft and edit your essay so that your content, style, tone, and sentences are carefully edited and appropriate for the audience.

2) Thesis & Progression of Main Points

Aim to make your essay carefully narrowed, organized, and transitioned. Your thesis should be specific, highlighting just 2-3 rhetorical and linguistic features that you either find central to the construction of the argument or particularly significant or interesting. The organization of your argument and analysis should be crafted in way that your ideas are delivered to your audience in a “digestible” fashion. Throughout the paper, please use “signposts,” transitional phrases, and topic sentences to guide readers and let them know what is about to happen. For example, “In what follows, I will analyze…” or “Another feature from the text worth pointing out is…” “While I have been examining X, Y represents an alternative approach to…”

3) Rhetorical Situation & Summary

Introduce appropriate rhetorical information about the author, text (including the genre, publication, and year published), context (including the general topic and exigence), purpose, and audience. Focus your summary on the main argument and main support (reasons and evidence) utilized by the author, as well as the structure (organizational scheme) of the text (e.g., Why does the author present the elements of their argument in the order they do?).

4) Rhetorical Analysis

This is the main goal of the essay. Select appropriate rhetorical concepts/terms your analysis will focus on and then carefully select evidence (quotes and examples) you’ll use from the text(s) to support your analysis. Your analysis should follow the “10 on 1” rule of thumb—that is, it is better to make ten observations or points about a single representative issue or example (10 on 1) than to make the same basic point about ten related issues or examples (1 on 10). Thus, be very choosy in selecting representative examples that demonstrate your ideas. It also means that you’ll need to be extensive in your analysis of those select examples, providing appropriate description and interpretation to show your audience what you see.

5) Exigence

Comment on how, why, and for whom this text, and your rhetorical analysis of it, is significant. What difference might this text make to readers? What’s at stake? For whom? Who might be implicated or affected? How might rhetorical analysis be important to readers? How might your specific interpretations be valuable? You may also discuss how this text or assignment affected you; about the significance of this texts in the context of our current social/political atmosphere; and/or about the rhetorical effectiveness of the text.

"Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things."
—FLORA LEWIS

ASSIGNMENT CRITERIA

DLN CRITERIA

AUDIENCE	THESIS, MAIN POINTS, EXIGENCE	RHETORICAL SITUATION & SUMMARY	ANALYSIS	GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
How effectively does the analysis tailor its argument, examples, and language to meet the expectations of the intended audience?	How effectively is the essay narrowed, organized, and transitioned? How effective and specific is the thesis? How effectively does the essay answer the So what? Who cares? questions to demonstrate the exigence of rhetorical analysis and to make connections to larger implications?	How effectively are elements of the rhetorical situation introduced (i.e., information about the author, text, context/exigence, purpose, and audience)? How effective is the summary of the text’s argument, evidence, and organization?	How effectively does the essay rhetorically analyze the text by applying 2-3 specific rhetorical concepts and adopting the 10 on 1 rule of thumb? How effectively is the analysis supported with evidence?	Were all requirements for length and due date met? Has the essay been polished for errors in grammar, spelling, or mechanics? Is the format correct? Does the essay contain a title that sparks interest and captures the subject of the essay? Has the author included a cover letter reflecting on the assignment objectives?

INFOGRAPHIC CRITERIA

CONTENT	ORGANIZATION	STYLE & CREATIVITY	ARGUMENT	​GENERAL REQUIREMENTS
Does the infographic present accurate and detailed information that supports its thesis/argument/purpose? Is the content focused and clear?	Is information systematically and logically organized and to support the reader’s comprehension of the main message? Is it easy to follow?	Do the fonts, colors, layouts, and visual elements meaningfully contribute to the infographics’ overall message?	Does the infographic effectively inform and convince the reader of its intended purpose or thesis?	Were all requirements for length and due date met? ​

"I like the concentration, the crush; I like working with language, as others like working with clay, or notes."
—GWENDOLYN BROOKS