1 CM 220 UNIT 5 Seminar: Understanding Your Audience and Outlining Your Big Idea General Education, Composition Kaplan University

Unit 5 Reading ReadingWhere to find Intro to UnitPosted in Doc Sharing, unit 5 folder The Kaplan Guide to Successful Writing, chapters 7, 13, 14 (pp ) Posted in Doc Sharing, unit 5 folder 3 editorial articlesFiles posted in the Reading section (click on “journal” icons) 2

Unit 5 Tech Lab: Podcasts and Video 3

Unit 5 Invention Labs Invention Lab 1: Map at least 4 ideas for draft (prewriting exercise) Invention Lab 2: Formal and informal communications of big idea (letter to editor and post on Facebook, for example) Note: Both of these have to be posted in one thread—be sure to post both and respond to at least one classmate for question #1 and two classmates for question#2. 4

GETTING STARTED AND MAPPING IDEAS The Writing Process 5

Getting Started with Your Big Idea In unit 6, you will submit a 3-5 page draft of your Big Idea. Why is beginning early, in unit 5, helpful to you as a writer? What can you do to GET STARTED? 6

Common Prewriting Techniques Freewriting Brainstorming Bubbling Clustering See ch. 6 of The Kaplan Guide to Successful Writing for more on the writing process. Listing Informal outlining Annotating Questioning 7

Organizational Tools The site on graphic organizers (click on the “organizational tools” link in the unit 5 Invention Lab instructions) has links to various charts that might be helpful to start mapping ideas for the draft. 8

Bubbling Chart: Food Additives 9 Food additives—are they dangerous? Decreasing nutritional value of food? Compare ingredients and nutritional value Health risks?Cancer Rising obesity rates Impact on brain development? Neurological disorders (Parkinsons, Alzheimers, ADD ) Changing what we grow and how we grow it? Farmers growing more corn, soybeans (used in many of the additives like HFCS)

Listing chart: Banning cigarettes Main pointsSupport from sources? Audience concerns to address Examples I could use Cigarettes are bad for everyone’s health, smokers and non-smokers alike Surgeon General (warnings), medical reports on second- hand and third- hand smoke effects Should the government outlaw everything that is bad for us (fast food, etc.?) Childhood asthma and allergies, even ear infections, often tied into parents’ smoking Those horrible pictures they showed in elementary school of black lungs of smokers! 10

Organizing and Developing Your Ideas Establish a thesis Consider writing an outline (it can be changed later) Take the ideas in the outline and brainstorm each concept/argument Begin researching and incorporating evidence to support your argument/claims 11

AUDIENCE AND PURPOSE The next step 12

Audience and Purpose Why is paying attention to your audience and purpose KEY to successful persuasion? Who is the audience you would like to communicate to? What do you know about them and what do you need to know about them? What do you want to communicate to that audience? How can you best communicate your information to that audience? 13

Letters to the Editor 14

Letters to the Editor: Topics Truth and fiction on the stimulus bill [Editorial]. (2010, February 20). The New York Times. Retrieved from Take charge: The stimulus bill requires President Obama’s intervention. [Editorial]. (2009, February 1). Retrieved from dyn/content/article/2009/01/31/AR html dyn/content/article/2009/01/31/AR html The immigration law fallacy: Will Texas be next? [Editorial]. (2010, June 16). Retrieved from Dallas-Tea-Party-Examiner~y2010m6d16-The-Immigration-Law- Fallacy-Will-Texas-Be-Nexthttp:// Dallas-Tea-Party-Examiner~y2010m6d16-The-Immigration-Law- Fallacy-Will-Texas-Be-Next 15

Letters to the Editor: Discussion Are these letters effective? What is the argument each makes? Are the facts that the authors use credible? You can go to FactCheck.org to read credible information on this topic.FactCheck.org Select at least one argument in each letter that you can verify, or not, and discuss how this adds to or detracts from the writer’s argument. 16

What other forms might I use to present my big idea to a wider audience? Post on Facebook page Blog post to friend Flyer to distribute to community Twitter feed Letter to specific audience (say, the school board) 17

Helpful Writing Center Tutorials TopicURL link to Archive Audience and Purposehttp://khe2.acrobat.com/p / ?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pb Mode=normal Developing Ideashttp://khe2.acrobat.com/p / ?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pb Mode=normal Avoiding Writer’s Blockhttp://khe2.acrobat.com/p / ?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pb Mode=normal 18