Assignment Description: 

ADVOCACY TEXT: Your work in the third unit of this course builds to an Advocacy Text project: the Advocacy Text is a text that has a rhetorical purpose of creating positive, productive change for a cause in the world, with an audience that reaches beyond your instructor and classmates. Remember that a text can take many shapes, but to give you a guideline to work with, please create a document that could fit onto a one-sided, standard 8.5” by 11” sheet of pa.per (or smaller). The text can involve any combination of message elements that fit your rhetorical purpose: these elements may include the mode or channel you use to share the text with your intended audience, the conventions or genre of the document, and graphic, visual, or design elements. You may need to conduct outside research to learn more about your cause or to find up-to-date information to include in your Advocacy Text (and keep in mind that if you use any information thats not yours and is not common knowledge, you will need to find a way to communicate the source of your information to consumers of your text).

You’re encouraged to let your text advocate for a cause that suits your personal interests and passions. It might, for instance, seek to do one of the following: to raise awareness about an issue, to inform or educate an audience about an issue, to persuade for a particular perspective on an issue, or to make a call to action (to encourage an audience to take a concrete step to help).

To identify an opportunity that might fit this project well, you could consider either:

1. creating a text that you have the authority to share with your intended audience (such as a postcard you could send to members of an organization you lead, an infographic you could share on your social media account, or a letter to a government representative)

… or…

1. creating a text that you can propose to an existing organization, group, or individual outside our class who is already advocating for your cause and might be able to use your text (for instance, you could propose a new poster to a local nonprofit that they could use to advertise their hours and services or you could propose an informational sign to your employer that they could add to the recycling bins to educate coworkers on what materials can be recycled)

The Advocacy Text must be shared with the intended audience or shared with the organization, group, or individual you’re proposing it to before the project is due: this is an important requirement of the project because it gives you as a student the opportunity to exercise your power as a writer-citizen.

When you submit your final project, you must include evidence that you’ve shared your Advocacy Text with your intended audience or audience you proposed it to, such as a photograph of the text wherever you’ve posted it or a screenshot of a sent timestamped email in which you proposed the text to the audience you proposed it to. If you propose your text to an existing organization, group, or individual, whether or not that audience chooses to use your text is beyond your control and will not affect your grade.

Requirements: 

• The Advocacy Text should be submitted in a .pdf or .doc/.docx format
• Evidence that you’ve shared your advocacy text should accompany this submission (.pdf, jpeg/png, or other attachment)