ENGL 110 AMU Week 2 lesson Informative Communication Making Writing Relevant American Military university
This week we will consider the specific genre of informative communication. In addition, we will explore the rhetorical situation as a means to begin exploring your topic. Finally, we will look at main ideas, how to support those ideas and citing your work.
The Importance of Genres
What are GENRES and why are they important? Throughout the course, we will be looking at three main genres, or types, of writing and communicating. We will write and present an informative speech, a persuasive essay, and an analytical essay.
In an INFORMATIVE essay, the writer does just what the title suggests: informs the audience.
In a PERSUASIVE essay, the writer uses claims and support to convince the audience that the author’s perspective is correct.
In an ANALYTICAL essay, the writer breaks down a topic, analyzes and evaluates the components, and presents the deeper findings to the reader.
For the next two weeks, we begin to focus on one purpose for communication: Communicating to inform. It is essential that you know the purpose of the genre when communicating. Otherwise, you may find yourself trying to persuade your audience when you are really supposed to only be informing them.
Finding Your Topic
How do you choose and narrow a TOPIC? You will not always have a say in the overall topic that you have to write about in a course. However, what are some steps that you can take when choosing a topic?
- Read the assignment thoroughly. Do you have a choice? What are the parameters?
- Consider what topics you know and where your interests are. Think about how you can become interested in a topic that isn’t your preference (Reid, 2011).
- Make sure that your topic is broad enough that you can fully flush out the topic with support.
- At the same time, ensure that it is not so narrow that you will be unable to locate any information and write more than a paragraph or two.
- TOO BROAD?
- TOO NARROW?
- JUST RIGHT?
- If your topic cannot be covered within the space allotted to the assignment, it is too broad.
- If you find that you are not able to go into depth about any of the details related to your topic, it is too broad.
- If your main points are all general statements about a general topic, it is too broad.
- If you find that your supporting subtopics are barely related to one another or that they are not able to be cleanly transitioned from one to another, your topic is too broad.
- If, during the research phase your research turns up hundreds, or even thousands of results, your topic may be too broad. (It also might be a popular topic, though.)
The Rhetorical Situation
As you begin to think about the assignment you are given, consider the stages of prewriting we discussed last week. By making sure you thoroughly read and understand the assignment, you can then move to considering the rhetorical situation.
WHAT IS A RHETORICAL SITUATION?
Essentially, a rhetorical situation is when you are communicating to an audience and have a purpose. In this situation, you consider the audience as you prepare and deliver your presentation, whether that is written, spoken, or visual.
There are a few things to consider as you think about the rhetorical situation in which you find your assignment:
What is the goal of the writing? What is the purpose?
What values do the audience have; why would they care about this topic?
Who is the audience, and what do they already know about the issue?
- Determines how much context they need
- May need evidence to support claims
- May need to adapt based on the audience (Reid, 2011)How do you portray yourself?
- Approachable? Academic?
- How can tone and mechanics affect how writing is perceived by audience?What are the gaps?
- What has been said and not said about the topic?
- What can I add?
- How can I support my points?
The Main Idea
When organizing an essay, speech, or other form of communication, it is essential to consider your main points. What do you want your audience to know when you are done? These main ideas will help to form the backbone of your work. In high school, we are often taught about the “hamburger” method for writing where you have an intro, three main ideas (or points) and then a conclusion. This is a solid way to begin. However, as we progress through this course, we will begin to expand on this five paragraph body. Essentially, each paragraph in your essay (if you are writing an essay) should have one main point that is then supported in that paragraph. This week, this is still a good way to think about organizing your upcoming informative speech.
It doesn’t matter if you have great ideas if you can’t effectively communicate those ideas. The use of paragraphs in writing is the primary method of presenting information – and your great ideas – in an organized manner. Paragraphs are the building blocks of a good essay. They are a group of sentences that are all related to a single topic.
Each essay you write should have an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Each paragraph usually follows this basic structure of introduction, body, and conclusion. Just as an essay is dominated by a central idea or theme (usually in the form of a thesis statement), a paragraph should also be focused on only one topic. If your paragraphs try cover too much ground, your readers will lose focus and your essay will be much less effective at achieving your goals.
In general, paragraphs will end up being around 4-7 sentences each. This will give you enough space to establish the point that the paragraph is trying to make, without going on for so long that it should be broken up into smaller units.