Writing 340: Arts & Humanities Spring 2016

Writing 340: Arts & Humanities Spring 2016 Sections 65075 & 65205 Bankard Not “Everything is Awesome”: The Editorial for a Popular Audience Assignment Our Purpose as a Class: Now that you’ve made an argument for a specific group of scholars who have similar knowledge and interests, you will in this next assignment learn how to sell your expert opinion to a larger, more diverse readership of non-specialists. Continuing our discussion of audience and context, we’ll focus on how to make complex ideas or research more accessible, how to engage a reader who does not already want to read what you’ve written, how a single piece fits into the context of an entire publication’s identity, and how to develop a strong voice and effective style. Your Purpose as a Writer: To convince a popular audience that they should a.) care about a particular (preferably topical) issue and b.) agree with the argument you make about that issue. You also, in doing so, need to convince the editors of a specific publication to print your piece. Context: Writers often refer to “the general public” as if everyone were a part of a vapid, lemming-like hive mind akin to the conformist citizens singing “Everything is Awesome” in The Lego Movie. And while it’s true that many people do not know about or understand issues that affect their lives and look to more mainstream publications to enlighten them, the notion that all people in all places suffer from the exact same kinds of ignorance is absurd. Within popular media or publications targeting non-scholarly or non-specialist readers, multiple discourse communities or more individualized public spheres exist. The average reader of The Washington Post, for example, possesses different knowledge and values than someone who regularly reads Rolling Stone or The Huffington Post and readerships for a single publication may in of themselves be diverse. Writers must take this into consideration when drafting an editorial. In the same way you wouldn’t submit one cover letter to all the jobs you would apply for, a writer wouldn’t submit the exact same editorial written in the exact same way to all publications. An understanding of audience and context also furthers the goal of an editorial – to connect intellectually with large groups of people and, presumably, facilitate some kind of social change. As Trish Hall, editor of the Op-Ed section of The New York Times, says, people don’t write editorials for the money, but rather “They write for the influence, for the chance to reach an audience, to say something that’s been bothering them, driving them crazy, something that no one else seems to be saying.” As a writer you want to optimize your influence, and mismatching your message may lead to that message falling on deaf ears. The challenge of this type of writing, then, is to appeal to an audience while simultaneously making an uncomfortably eyeopening statement. Writing Task: Select a specific publication intended for a popular audience and write an editorial (1000-1500 words) for that publication. Once you have drafted the editorial, you must also write a companion essay (1000 words) in which you answer the following question: “Why should the editor of your selected publication accept your piece?” Tips: • There is a difference between opinion and argument, and even though newspapers and magazines often call their editorials “op-eds” or “opinion pieces,” you as the writer don’t get to rant and rave with reckless abandon, failing to substantiate your opinion with some kind of evidence or reasoning. There’s no point in sharing an opinion if you can’t convince readers to agree with you, so think carefully about how you might do that. • Unlike the scholarly paper you just wrote, an editorial does not require a formal citation of sources and editorials don’t overtly incorporate outside sources, scholarly or otherwise. That means that there is no required number of sources or guidelines about what types of sources to you. You must use your own judgment and decide, based on the argument, the audience, and the context, a.) what type of sources you yourself need to consult and b.) what kind of evidence you need to include in the text itself. • Don’t just pick The New York Times as your publication because it’s the first newspaper that pops into your head. Think about what you actually like to read or what kind of readership you’re interested in addressing. Also, what publications seem like your style or would be receptive to your ideas and your voice? We’ll start this assignment by gathering different examples of editorials from different publications, so hopefully that will give you some additional ideas. Then, try to do some research on the publication. Who are the editors? What kinds of editorials have they published in the past? Who reads this publication and why? • Choose a topic that you feel passionate about and can write about authoritatively. Oftentimes scholars or professional experts in a particular field write editorials because they want to share their expertise and use their position as an expert to establish ethos or authority in their writing. • To have a strong opinion about an issue does not necessarily mean that you have a binary stance, definitely saying “yes” or “no,” or “this is good” or “this is the worst.” Convincing the reader to think about an issue in a different way is a way to express your opinion. • Remember that the audience for this paper reads for pleasure; this means you will have to consider how to grab and keep hold of their attention, without sacrificing the integrity discourse on the issue that you would want to maintain since you (ideally) actually care about that issue. • The audience for the companion essay is me and only me. This short essay should “show your work” and essentially convince me that you’ve written not only the best editorial possible, but that you have been thoughtful and deliberate in the way you’ve written it. How does the editorial appeal to the readership of this particular publication? How have you adapted your writing style or structured the piece to not only appeal to readers but also fit the genre of the editorial? How have you translated complex ideas or detailed information for this audience? You should always, when answering any of these questions, provide specific examples as evidence, either by describing a specific moment in the editorial or quoting from it directly (keep direct quotes very brief or stick to partial quotes). Due Date: Friday March 11th. Upload to Turnitin assignment portal on Blackboard before midnight.