Writing Project 3 Assignment Prompt

Purpose

This third writing project asks you to engage in the work of collaborative writing and working practices, as you will have to divide the work of the collective project amongst your group members and each contribute significantly to the final product. While "essayist literacies" often focus on individual work, the third project reflects the greater likelihood of shared writing tasks you may encounter.

Writing Project 3 requires you to continue developing the skills we’ve discussed in the first two projects and adds an increased focus on building support for an argument.

During this project, we will discuss methods to find and engage with reputable sources on a particular topic through research online and through the library. Particular attention will be paid to integrating multiple perspectives of authors and developing greater awareness of how style plays into source integration.

Readings

(listed alphabetically by author)

• Joffe-Walt, Chana. "Three Miles." This American Life, National Public Radio, 13 March 2015, https://www.thisamericanlife.org/550/three-miles.

• Marisol Meraji, Shereen, and Gene Demby. "Ask Code Switch: School Daze." Code Switch, National Public Library, 12 September 2018, https://www.npr.org/2018/09/12/646870057/ask-code-switch-school-daze.

• Moghadam, Kyana. "Heritage Languages in U.S. Schools: A Story of Identity, Belonging, and Loss." Mind/Shift, KQED, 13 September 2022, https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/59864/heritage-languages-in-schools-a-story-of-identify-belonging-and-loss.

• Replogle, Jill. "In College, Dyslexic Students Often Have to Be Their Own Advocates. How Some Found a Path to Success." LAist.com, 24 August 2022, https://laist.com/news/education/accommodations-dyslexia-college-higher-education

Premise

Well, the benefit comes if the people who are conducting the conversation, the people who have the facilitation control of this conversation have a depth of understanding of the topic themselves that they can identify those pitfalls, they can identify those land mines ahead of time and be ready when they get triggered because that's going to happen. — Keith Woods, NPR Vice President of Newsroom Training and Diversity

When faced with a new or challenging subject, sometimes it’s best to just talk it out with others. Especially when there is no “easy” way to address all the complexities of a particular topic, it is critical that we seek out the knowledge and perspective of others in order to understand the subject at hand.

As the readings we have done so far readily demonstrate, in Education and Intellectual Development, there are no easy answers or solutions to the issues that impact how we learn in the world. And the readings of this third project reinforce that difficulty. When we talk about “education,” it might seem that the issues around learning are innumerable.

Whether we are talking about formal systems of education, ways of teaching, ways of knowing, the impact of other socioeconomic factors on learning, cultural values toward education, et cetera, there are a lot of issues to debate and for each of those issues there is a lot to learn.

In the first two writing projects, you were asked to reflect on your personal knowledge and experiences to develop arguments about the significance of your learning and of the impact of others on your knowledge. Those projects were designed to assist with the art of developing an argument without being asked to conduct research on the topics that you selected. That absence of required research was designed to encourage you to embrace your own ideas and to encourage you to assert your own argument.

Developing arguments can be difficult for many of us, especially given the context of “essayist” literacies that may have shaped your approach to writing in previous coursework. As developing writers, many of us are told that our primary job is to report information for an unknown reader (truthfully, it’s typically the teacher alone)—this work, often framed as a “research paper,” charges us as writers to be neutral, to be “objective,” and to be focused on the accuracy of information without much regard for its source and purposes. Our thoughts, our opinions, our arguments in those research papers are often discouraged.

However, as many of the readings in our course have shown, there’s much more to unpack in the appearance of “truth,” and when we understand the complexity of ourselves and of others, it can make the issue of “research” much more argumentatively driven than we might have previously realized.

So as we turn to this third project, we’re going to engage in the work of research with the intent to discover and to argue for a specific purpose of understanding that can result from our work.

Understanding what we know, from whom we know it, and how we frame conversations about what we know (or even just to acknowledge it) can be the source of much contention. In the episode of Code Speak that we will read/listen to during this project, Keith Woods (quoted above) joins the podcast hosts to discuss the challenges of having difficult conversations. His advice to understand the issue deeply and to “to have some set of norms” when having difficult conversations give us a solid framework for thinking about academic arguments.

We should think of research as uncovering arguments and understanding the reasons for which those arguments are made. What is accepted as credible evidence, how we approach those arguments, what is said, and—importantly—what is left unsaid will help us to understand the issues we research more deeply.

And in considering the idea that research is about discovering and exploring conversations on a topic, we’re going to hold our own conversations. In those conversations, each participant is responsible to enter that context with relevant information and understanding of the topic, but this responsibility does not need to be viewed as competitive but rather collaborative. Even in talking about a “singular” topic, we may find that the information and understanding we bring to that topic offers a wide range of ideas and insights.

In recent years, one popular medium for those informed conversations is that of the podcast. While there are many different types and styles of podcasts, podcast listeners often tune in to those recordings to learn more or to hear new perspectives on a topic that interests them. While not all podcasts may be rigorously researched, the ethos of the podcast hosts (and their guests) is bolstered when they come into those conversations with research to back up their discussions.

Writing Prompt

For Writing Project Three, we’re going to tackle the genre of the podcast, and we are going to do so in a collaborative approach. That is, while each member of your podcast team will be responsible for developing a written “script” for your podcast, the audio-recorded conversation around your team’s topic will represent the collaboration of your efforts.

As a team, I want you to select an issue related to the theme of our class, Education and Intellectual Development, and I want you to discuss this issue as a team, determining what it is that you know about this issue, what is important about this issue, and what you need to learn in order to discuss it.

At the end of this project, the goal is to record a podcast episode that reflects your group’s individual and collaborative efforts to research and argue for the importance of your issue. Accompanying this audio recording, will be each of your team member’s “scripts” for the podcast—whether you want to develop these scripts into a transcript of your podcast or keep them separate is up for your team to determine, but the written component of this assignment will be the tool for individual accountability to your group.

It’s up to you as a team how you would like to approach the process of breaking down this topic and researching it, but you should each contribute a significant and reasonably equitable portion of research and writing for the podcast episode that you record.

Prompt Question

As a team, each person is responsible for writing and researching their portion of the script for your team’s podcast, which will see you answer the question:

Why is this issue in education important to discuss?

The question is purposefully vague because I want you as a team to select an issue that is important to you and that can result in an engaging podcast of 25-30 minutes (this is approximately 4500 written words, or 1125-1500 words per team member, depending on the size of your group).

In pursuing this question, you’ll want to consider the complexity of that issue, and why it is important to consider multiple perspectives. Additionally, you will want to demonstrate to your listeners that the conversation is backed up by credible research.

Furthermore, in WP4, I will be asking you to extend the work you begin in WP3 to develop an individually written “white paper,” which will be your opportunity to talk about solutions or approaches to this issue that you recommend to your readers. So you will want to pick a topic, that you’re interested in writing about for the rest of the semester.

Audience and Significance

The medium of podcasting can draw in a wide range of listeners, but typically, most people tune in to podcasts that they have some preexisting interest in. While I am not expecting you to publish your podcast episodes in a publicly accessible format, I want you to consider how you might frame the information and your arguments about the issue for a concerned listener.

Outside Sources

For Writing Project Three, I want you to engage with at least 6 credible sources for your individual written script contributions. Those sources may be from credible publications accessible to the public and/or peer-reviewed research from the USC Libraries. We will talk about finding sources, determining credibility, and integrating that information into your writing during this assignment sequence.

As a podcast team, there may be some overlap in the sources that you each use, but as long as you are presenting a well-informed, nuanced perspective of the issue you are discussing, that will be fine.

Citations and Documentation

For your written scripts, I want you to use the formal MLA documentation style—including in-text parenthetical citations and a Works Cited page with a list of all your sources used. We will discuss citation practices and MLA style during this project, and I will provide resources to help with that effort.

In recording the podcast, you may find it is more natural to use the attributive phrasing that we discussed in WP2.

Submission

Your Team's Recorded Audio Podcast will be due by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, November 13.

Your individual written scripts for WP3 will also be due by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, November 13.

Feedback and Grading

After you have submitted your podcast recording and individually written scripts for Writing Project 3, I will listen to your recorded podcast and give your team a collaborative grade for that work. Additionally, I will meet with you to discuss your script work during Writing Project 4, to help discuss how you can adapt the work you did in WP3 for the WP4 prompt.

The grade you receive for WP3 does not impact your final course grade; because the Grading Contract emphasizes the labor you put into your coursework, making an effort and trying your best to write and record a compelling podcast for WP3 is what matters. The "grade" you receive on your final submission is intended to help you gauge the work you are doing in the course.

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