Examining & Practicing Genre & Rhetoric: Problem One–Joining the Global Union
Length: 6+ Hours
Discipline: Composition and Rhetoric
Level: Intermediate (non-majors)
Author: Skutar, Claudia
Type: Problem
This first problem of three sets up simulations of real-world scenarios and then asks students to think and write about them. In a world of rapidly changing communication methods, college-level writers must not only understand the conventions of traditional academic writing but must learn to think critically and to write about and in various genres. One way to help students learn to do this is via communication problems based on parallels to real-world events. In this first problem, students must develop a written founding document for an emerging democracy; that document, geared to a global audience, must establish and defend the rights of its citizens. To complete their task, students research similar documents as sources for their own and reference these sources in written arguments. Students also must defend their documents orally. The second problem in this set, by Rita Kumar, requires students to defend an important right. The third problem, by Brenda Refaei, encourages students to think about how to use the content of their majors to solve global problems.