Web Text Contribution
From Reading as a Writer to Composing as a Reader
As Swales notes, in any given discourse community members disseminate their work and contribute to the larger network of its members through their contributions. Through your Inquiry Logs, you have garnered a sense of the conversation, developed thought-provoking and problem-based questions that led you to providing your inquiry group with new insights, approaches, and/or suggestions as you came to understand that there were, indeed, “gaps.” You will now take your understanding of the conversation and your recognition of the “gaps” and contribute to larger discourse communities as you disseminate your work in one of four Web Text options: a digital magazine, a website, a digital book, or a digital academic journal (with multiple genre options to choose from).
As you compose, you will also have to consider the values of your discourse community (the one that you are composing from) and also the values of the discourse community that you will be addressing as your audience. Therefore, as you compose and negotiate your rhetorical choices, you will need to keep in mind that others are going to naturally disagree. After all, a contribution makes an argument (either implicitly or explicitly).
We are all composers! For this class, you have been composing many text-based entries
(blogs, logs, reflections, comments, and class facilitations, among others); however,
in each, you made different moves as a writer/composer depending on your
goals/purposes, the genre, the mode, the context, and the audience. This
composition will be no different. However, up to this point, your entries
for this class have allowed you to experiment as a writer in a low-stakes
environment. Now, you will want to pay close attention to your rhetorical
moves, as you will be submitting your work not only for the class but also you
will be encouraged to submit your work for consideration in a larger forum of publication
outside of the classroom.
You will be encouraged to submit your work for consideration in a larger forum of publication
outside of the classroom.
What will you need to have?
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No matter the Web Text form that you choose, you will need to include an opening to your work. This opening will be an extension of your group’s contribution statement. The work here is to establish the framework of your contribution for the reader. This is important, as it will also provide your group with a “point of contact”: It is something that you will be able to look to at all points in the composing process, as each aspect of your contribution should fall under the umbrella of your opening. See "Creating a Reseach Space" (Swales).
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You will need to have a “complete” contribution. While your opening will point to your contribution, the form of the contribution itself should be complete, including all of the elements that one would expect of either a digital magazine, a digital book, or a website.
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You will need to have time to develop this work. You will only have two required drafts for this assignment. However, those that do well on this assignment will demonstrate that they have undergone the entirety of the composing process. This means that you have developed materials for the larger work, considered and created ‘transitions’ between the work, paid attention to the aesthetics of the work, made sure that the ways in which information is comprised and shared is in keeping with the tenor of your audience, and allowed sufficient time to edit you work. Note here that “editing” a digital work means that you do more than pay attention to grammar: color, lines, sound, visuals, etc. elements that need editing attention.
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You will need to have a multimodal/multimedia composition. While there are times that you will include the work of others, you must consider that this is YOUR work. Just as you would not include all the text of another source, so too should your multimedia elements be your own.
As I review your work:
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I should see that you have a cohesive body of work that considers the context and discourse community that you are both composing from and to;
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I should be able to clearly see the overall purpose of the work as it speaks to your larger contribution;
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I should be able to see that you have developed the larger work considering the Web Text form that you have selected and the conventions that are appropriate for the genres that you have composed in, and that your rhetorical moves throughout have been shaped by the awareness of your audience.