PHASE I

As mentioned, the inspiration for my design came from the realization that we, as Writing Studies educators, tend to follow patterns of document design that fail to take an authentic student audience into account. As Womack (2017) puts it, “we want students to digest difficult and lengthy arguments. Learning documents in that complex style, though, show a lack of audience awareness, or perhaps demonstrate they were not crafted for a student audience” (p. 511). Additionally, because, like syllabi, the documents in my sequence “are not value-neutral documents on any level,” I knew that I wanted to maintain an eye for aesthetics and accessible design, understanding, as Womack (2017) reminds us, that,

• Users are real people with real problems to solve.

• Users do not want to read documents; they want to do things.

• Users often approach documents already feeling frustrated.

• When users do read documents, they rarely read all the way through. (pp. 503, 511).

To that end, the Research Proposal Draft prompt has been scaled back for thematic purposes to more clearly present the procedural and declarative tasks important to the students' research endeavors. The draft is developed by students in manageable chunks which incorporate multiple elements of group work for invention activities and secondary research sources. Writers will begin to investigate real-world exigencies, real-life literacy artifacts, real-life communities, and real Writing Studies research methods through an assignment design that invites complete readership. The Proposal Draft is meant to be exploratory and low-stakes, so even though its grade points equal those of other major assignments, students will be made aware through the rubric, the assignment prompt, and especially in class discussion that the pressure is really to come up with realistic research concepts and a workable process—not necessarily to provide a polished product.