Author: Mary Gryctko

This assignment is a revision of the research project assignment from my Writing I class that I’ve adapted to be the final assignment for Writing II—a “creative remix” of a research argument. At first, I wanted to make this assignment more open-ended—to let students do basically whatever they wanted for the remix—but, after talking to Seth during our one-on-one meeting for this class, I decided to give students two clear options of ways they might take the assignment: a documentary trailer or a podcast. I’ve still included an option for them to suggest something different, but I do think that having some clear suggestions is helpful. My meeting with Seth also encouraged me to turn the project into a group project—something that I’ve been struggling with is how to have students do more collaborative work in groups, which I think really helps with student engagement, while also trying to avoid a situation where one student does all the work. By having students write individual research papers on related topics first, and then work together to present their research, and by giving them a lot of time in class to work together on the final project, I hope to avoid this issue.

My scaffolding for this project is basically as follows:

I’m going to have my students watch two documentaries on the same subject, from opposing perspectives, early in the class (I would love recommendations!). They’ll also be listening to and discussing podcasts, really thinking about how these texts make medium-specific arguments, and how they appeal to different audiences. Students will work together in groups to create basic analyses of the documentaries that we watch, in class. I will put students in groups early, and each group will choose a broad topic to focus on (criminal law reform, climate change, the education system, social media, etc). Then, for Assignment I, each student will write an individual analysis essay about a documentary or podcast related to the topic that their group chose. Assignment II will have students write an argumentative research paper on some aspect of this topic (so one group might have a students writing about police reform, one writing about the death penalty, and one writing about drug laws). This will all led to the Creative Remix assignment, in which students will combine their research into a short, multimedia project.

The below is still very drafty, so I’d love any feedback that people might have!

Major Project 3 / Creative Remix of Research-Based Argument

The creative remix or assignment engages one of the five major course goals for ENG 2150(T):

Use a variety of media to compose in multiple rhetorical situations: Apply rhetorical knowledge in your own composing using the means of persuasion appropriate for each rhetorical context (alphabetic text, still and moving images, and sound), including academic writing and composing for a broader, public audience using digital platforms. As you work on this assignment think about the following questions: How do different media offer different affordances? Does the medium change the message? How can remediation be used as a lens to see an argument in new ways?

For this assignment, students will work in their writing groups to create a podcast or documentary trailer using the research that you conducted for you individual research papers. Think about the way that the documentaries that we watched/podcasts we listened to in class[*] use rhetorical strategies to present their arguments. How do these strategies work differently than they might in a traditional research paper? Think about how you might need to present your evidence differently in this new medium.

This is a creative project, and I encourage you to take it in any direction that you like—if you have an idea for a way to present your research that is not a podcast or documentary trailer, please run it by me!

In addition to the multimedia project, each student will turn in a written reflection (about 3-4 double-spaced pages). In addition to thinking through the questions listed in the first paragraph of this assignment sheet, use this as a space to reflect on your role in the project. How did your individual research fit into the larger argument? What was your role in creating and editing the final product?

Projects will be graded based on:

• Argument: Is the thesis clear and compelling? Is it backed up with evidence? Are the stakes of the argument clear? (25%)
• Structure: Does the argument flow clearly? Is the project the correct length (about 2-3 minutes for a trailer, 3-5 for a podcast)? (10%)
• Sources: Are sources clearly cited? Are sources that support your argument peer-reviewed, or otherwise from trusted sources? You might include a credits scene, where you list credits for music/clips that you used in your trailer (or where you read these credits in your podcast). (15%)
• Creativity: Does the piece use creative strategies to engage its intended audience? Do the authors tell a compelling story using images, audio, and rhetorical appeals (appeals to logos, pathos, etc)? This is a creative remix, and so you should have fun with it! (25%)
• Revision: How does the piece revise its authors’ original research papers to fit a new medium/audience? Are the authors clearly thinking about creating for a new medium, or are they merely restating their arguments in the same way they might in an essay? (15%)
• Individual author’s written reflection (10%)

Your grade on the remix project makes up 30% of your course grade.

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[*] I will name them in the actual assignment sheet; I’m planning to have us watch two documentaries on the same topic from sort of opposing points of view, but I haven’t decided what these will be yet—I’d love suggestions! They’ll also listen to some episodes of This American Life.

The material that I plan to revise—my Teaching Artifact—is the final research assignment for my Writing I class. I want to adapt it to use in Writing II, which I’m teaching next semester. My main goal when revising this assignment is to allow students more freedom in how they present their research. Right now, the assignment is to write a 7-pg research paper. While I want to leave students that option, I also want to open it up to invite less traditional methods of composition—students could present their research as a podcast, for example, or they could create a website. I think that inviting students to think of composition as something beyond just writing papers for class is a really important part of my job as a writing teacher, and I hope that this assignment will help do that. It will also encourage students who might have really exciting skills that maybe fall outside of structuring a traditional essay to bring those skills to play in the class, and it might encourage students who are traditionally “good” writers to move outside of their comfort zone and create something new and interesting.

The current assignment sheet is pasted below–the prompts would probably be different for the revised version, as it would be for a different class.

Major Project 3 / Research-Based Argument

Your final project of the term asks you to learn more about a topic related to the course theme or one that arises for you from the course readings. You’ll investigate the topic, form a guiding question for your research, and attempt to answer the question, using course texts and sources outside the course. You’ll integrate these sources into your own writing, ultimately coming to a (perhaps tentative) conclusion or claim (thesis) from your research and learning.

I encourage you to take this assignment in any direction you like—research a topic that you are genuinely interested in and excited about. It does not have to relate to anything that we’ve read or discussed in this class. If you’re looking for places to start, though, looking back at some of your earlier assignments and prompts might be helpful. You might write an essay about code-switching, conducting personal interviews and reading articles that would help you form a thesis about how code-switching works, when and why it might be necessary, and when and how it can be harmful. Your literacy narrative or analysis project might have raised questions about language, culture, or the histories of a particular text or movement that you want to explore further.

If you’d rather work on something new, and don’t have anything that you’re particularly excited to research in mind, here are two prompts that you’re welcome to use:

1. In “The Danger of a Single Story,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about how the stories that she read as a child did not contain characters who looked or lived like her. As a young reader and writer, she internalized the idea that characters in books must be white, upper/middleclass, and from a certain background. Using Adichie’s talk as a jumping off point, you might research a specific aspect of representation in literature/film/other media. Why does it matter if people (particularly, perhaps, young people) see people who look/live like them? What studies have shown that representation matters, and how? You might focus on the push to diversify school curriculums, children’s literature or television, museum collections, or something else that isn’t listed here.

• In her essay “The Egg and the Sperm,” Emily Martin shows how language and narrative infuse gender stereotypes into scientific discourse, even on a cellular level. Think of other cases where something similar may be happening, and research one of them. How does language—and how do the stories that we use to frame our understanding of the world—imbue other discourses that are supposed to be unbiased with bias? What values do words bring with them, and how does that shape discourse? You might think about another aspect of science or medicine, or an aspect of technology, schooling, or political discourse.  

Essays should be around 7 double-spaced pages, and should cite roughly 7-10 sources.

Final drafts of essays will be graded based on:

• Argument: Is the thesis clear and compelling? Is it backed up with evidence? Are the stakes of the argument clear? (25%)
• Structure: Does the argument progress and flow logically? Are paragraphs clearly marked with topic sentences? (15%)
• Research: Does the essay have enough sources? Are they peer-reviewed, or otherwise from trusted sources? Does the author acknowledge sources that may be biased, or otherwise flawed? Do they interrogate the sources critically? Has the author clearly done research from numerous sources, from varying backgrounds, and not just tried to find sources that support one viewpoint? (25%)
• Grammar, structure, etc. (10%)
• Editing: Has the author taken the feedback given by the professor and by peer reviewers into account when editing the essay? Have they made meaningful changes to the essay that clearly improve the above categories? (25%)

Your grade on the final draft of the research project makes up 30% of your course grade.

1. Hi! Nice meeting you! Could you introduce yourself? What department are you from? What courses are you teaching or have been teaching? What are the classes you teach like, such as format or class size? Is there anything you want to tell us about your teaching, research, or other projects? 

Hi! I’m Mary Gryctko. I got my PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 2020, and this is my first semester teaching at Baruch. I teach in the English department, in the First-year Writing program. I’m currently teaching ENG2100, Writing I, and next semester I will be teaching ENG2150, Writing II. Right now, my classes are hybrid–one class in person each week, one asynchronous assignment online. My class next semester was just switched to being fully in person. My classes are fairly small, which is good–this semester, I have a class of sixteen, and one of twenty-four. I try to focus my classes around student interests and have students participate in creating assignments as much as possible, but I feel like that’s been more difficult with the hybrid formula this semester. I’m looking forward to learning new ways to engage students in this seminar. My research focuses on death, gender, and childhood in Victorian literature and culture. Currently, I’m working on an article about “comfort books,” which were (often very weird) texts written by and for bereaved Victorian parents.

1. Could you talk a little bit about that course you’ll be working on during this seminar? 

During this seminar, I plan to work on retooling the final research assignment for my 2100 course to use in the 2150 course that I’ll be teaching next semester. I want to give students more freedom to complete these projects in ways that are interesting to them next semester–I’m hoping to give them the option to present their research in different media than the standard written essay, if they want to, but I also really don’t want to force anyone to do that (I, personally, would always prefer to write an essay), and so I’m hoping to figure out a way to allow for creative responses to the prompt while also allowing traditional research papers.

1. What are the listed learning goals of your course? They could be ones provided by the department, or ones that you have written for your syllabus? Please list them (pasting is fine!).

After completing ENG 2150 students should be able to:

• Critically analyze texts in a variety of genres: Analyze and interpret key ideas in various discursive genres (e.g. essays, news articles, speeches, documentaries, plays, poems, short stories), with careful attention to the role of rhetorical conventions such as style, tropes, genre, audience and purpose.
• Use a variety of media to compose in multiple rhetorical situations: Apply rhetorical knowledge in your own composing using the means of persuasion appropriate for each rhetorical context (alphabetic text, still and moving images, and sound), including academic writing and composing for a broader, public audience using digital platforms.
• Identify and engage with credible sources and multiple perspectives in your writing: Identify sources of information and evidence credible to your audience; incorporate multiple perspectives in your writing by summarizing, interpreting, critiquing, and synthesizing the arguments of others; and avoid plagiarism by ethically acknowledging the work of others when used in your own writing, using a citation style appropriate to your audience and purpose.
• Compose as a process: Experience writing as a creative way of thinking and generating knowledge and as a process involving multiple drafts, review of your work by members of your discourse community (e.g. instructor and peers), revision, and editing, reinforced by reflecting on your writing process in metacognitive ways.
• Use conventions appropriate to audience, genre, and purpose: Adapt writing and composing conventions (including your style, content, organization, document design, word choice, syntax, citation style, sentence structure, and grammar) to your rhetorical context.

1. What class materials are you planning to develop? What goals do you have for them?

I’m hoping to use this seminar to develop a final research assignment that allows students more freedom in how they present their research, and other, low-stakes assignment that will scaffold to the final.