Computer Writing and Research Lab | University of Texas at Austin

types of assignment material

Submitted by Ljones on February 13, 2008 - 9:13am

For their first paper this semester, each student located an article to summarize in the Opposing Viewpoints database on the library website. I was pleased with the assignment because while the quality and type of articles varied widely, they were all of a similar length and presented similar challenges. I did not receive 20 identical papers, but students did not have to figure out for themselves how to choose an article suited to the assignment.

For their rhetorical analysis, again I want to give them a specific type of text, but let them choose from a variety of topics. In the past, I've had students write about slam poems, scholarly articles, and TV shows, but those can be very uneven in terms of difficulty.

I am considering allowing them to choose editorials in the New York Times or a campaign speech, but I'm hoping some of you have genre suggestions.

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Thoughts On Genre

Submitted by mass on February 14, 2008 - 3:46pm.

When it comes to genres of non-fiction writing, I've had my greatest success with movie reviews. I've often used rottentomatoes, so that students can see different reviews of the same film, both positive and negative, and can compare reviews written for a variety of different audiences.

I admit, I have used rottentomatoes just to look at models of reviews that the students will write themselves, not as a repository for articles which they will then analyze. Still, it's worth a try to structure a rhetorical analysis assignment around, say two reviews of the same film, either from different kinds of resources (mainstream media, on-line resource, blog, etc), or simply pro- and con.

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