Expectations of Output (Content, Method, Audience Tailoring)
Language - British, American, or other dialects of English, other languages, etc.
Genre-lab report, interview, sonnet, screenplay, tweet, recipe, thesis, sport report, resumé, etc.
Information - results, quotations, opinion, current events, statistics, analysis, examples, etc.
Delivery - spoken, emailed, printed on paper, hand-written, recorded, graphic, PowerPoint, etc.
Style Guide - MLA, APA, Chicago, AP, house style (eg. university or newspaper), etc.
Formatting - font, spacing, size, paragraphing, pagination, indents, layout, etc.
Grammar - tense, 1st/2nd/3rd person, active/passive, spoken vs. edited, etc.
Register of Formality - formal, casual, academic, professional, personal, funny, bawdy, etc.
Attributions - source lists/works'cited, quotations, footnotes/endnotes, public knowledge, etc.
Length - 200-350 pages, 5-8 pages, 10 minutes, 140 characters, 5 lines, 17 syllables, etc.
Time to completion - 2 weeks, 1 semester, 3 hours, real-time, 4-6 years, filing deadline, etc.
Strictness - Are there different sets of guidelines? How much variation is there between them?
What are the consequences for not following them? How often do people bend/break the rules
on purpose? etc.
...and many others I'm sure I'm not thinking of!
Your presentation should be 5-10 minutes speaking in front of the class, with a PowerPoint,
Prezi, or similar visual aid. You should also bring a sample of this kind of writing (for some
types this might be more difficult to acquire or circulate copies of in class, but we can talk about
exceptions), as well as as examples of where these guidelines can be found. (For instance,
an assignment description for a class, a citation handout from the Writing Center, a website, a
writing guidebook, a submission guideline for a publication, etc.) You should also be prepared to
talk about what things might be assumed rather than explicitly stated in the guides - that's
where practice writing in a particular genre becomes very important! You may want to talk to
more experienced writers of your chosen type and/or find interviews they've given about writing
- eg. advanced students, graduate students, faculty, authors, journalists, etc.
Finally, be prepared to talk about why you've chosen this type of writing and your own
experience with it. Is it something you've enjoyed doing in the past? Something you've struggled
with? Something you'll be expected to do often in your major/career in the future? What has
been difficult about finding your way through learning this type of writing? Where has the best
advice come from?
Deadline: Varies - we will sign up for 1-2 students per class day. Please plan well in advance,
as some of these will naturally fall on days that major assignments or regular homework will be
due, and consider as well what assignments you'll have in your other classes.
If you are having trouble coming up with a topic and/or finding resources and examples
for it, please come see me sooner rather than later! I can give plenty of suggestions for
ideas, and help you find many reliable resources.
Conventions of Writing Presentation (5% of your grade)
CONVENTION (noun): General agreement or consent, deliberate or implicit, as constituting the
origin and foundation of any custom, institution, opinion, etc., or as embodied in any accepted
usage, standard of behaviour, method of artistic treatment, or the like. (Oxford English
Dictionary)
A convention (from which conventional is derived) is something that is considered standard
practice. Sometimes conventions are codified as rules; other times, they might be flexible
unofficial traditions. Most often, they are somewhere in the middle, or there might several
competing guidelines at once, which might be stricter or looser depending on who you ask.
It is important to recognize the difference between not knowing a rule and breaking it on
purpose! I endeavor to simultaneously teach you both the guidelines and expectations of the
writing you will likely face in the future, and the independence and critical judgment to not blindly
follow all the rules all the time.
Explicit rules Common expectations
Acceptable Variation Intentional
Rejection
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