Legalizing marijuana plans

ISSUE, AUDIENCE, AND GENRE ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS In this assignment, you will answer a series of questions rather than write a unified essay. CITE ALL INFORMATION THAT DOES NOT ORIGINATE WITH YOU. These questions ask you to do the following: Describe an appropriately narrowed, current (within the last 18-24 months), and unresolved (not yet settled) issue relevant to your field of study. Explain what caused this controversial issue to arise and why people disagree about how it should be resolved. Identify a specific, real audience (stakeholder) for the issue you chose who disagrees, in part or in total, and analyze the audience’s position. The audience must have decision-making authority or considerable influence over the outcome of the issue. Explain your position on that issue Analyze that audience’s biases and potential counterarguments Locate samples of and analyze the genre conventions of advocacy letters Complete the end-page reflection MAKE SURE YOU DISAGREE WITH THE POSITION TAKEN BY YOUR AUDIENCE (stakeholder). Therefore, you must conduct sufficient research about your audience (stakeholder). Download and open the “Issue, Audience, and Genre Analysis Worksheet” document included in the assignment on Blackboard. Enter your responses to the questions directly on the worksheet. NOTE that you are not writing a formal essay; you are answering a series of questions only. You should have two well-developed paragraphs, each with cited evidence, per question. The bulk of your grade will be based on the substance and critical analyses in your responses. Save your file using the following file naming protocol: LateNameAnalysis. SOURCES: Your understanding of the issue, the audience, and your own stance will be more impressive if you use the most credible evidence you can find to support and illustrate your claims. At least two of your sources must come from a scholarly journal. The bulk of your evidence should reflect an in-depth use of the library databases, government data, and credible media outlets. Audiences who have decision-making authority over an issue will expect highly reputable sources as evidence. Choose evidence that your stakeholder would trust and respect. Make sure you effectively and ethically integrate your sources and cite them accurately. DOCUMENTATION: Consider this an academic essay. Include a references (APA) page or works cited (MLA) page at the end of this document. Edit and proofread your work. By the end of this process, you should be able to do the following: To research and analyze an active conversation about an issue relevant to your field of study To develop and refine a research question about that issue To identify and analyze an audience who has decision-making authority over that issue. Analyze that audience and discover how that audience will affect your research and writing. Analyze the advocacy letter genre you will use to write to that audience to learn how it will shape your final argument. Find, evaluate, integrate, and cite highly credible sources This assignment, developed by the George Mason Composition Program, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.) ISSUE, AUDIENCE, AND GENRE ANALYSIS WORKSHEET Enter your responses to the follow questions directly on this Word document. Save the document using the following file name: LastNameAnalysis Some questions will require more content to answer than others, but you should aim for two substantive paragraphs for each question. Make sure you cite your sources, and cite only sources your audience would respect. Your evidence should include information from at least one scholarly source. NAME OF YOUR DISCIPLINE: <enter your response here> YOUR refined and narrowed RESEARCH QUESTION: <enter your response here> 1. THE ISSUE: Describe the appropriately narrowed, current, and unresolved issue relevant to your field of study. Explain what caused this controversial issue to arise and why people disagree about how it should be resolved. Make sure it is either about to happen or is just getting underway, which means it have arisen as a controversy within the last 18-24 months. Be specific. Do not choose overly broad issues that have been debated for a long time, such as “legalizing marijuana.” Think much more narrowly, such as a specific piece of legislation at the federal or state level that has not yet been voted upon (e.g., how a specific state considering legalizing marijuana plans to negotiate the federal prohibition against its use). Use credible evidence to indicate the source of your information, integrate it effectively and ethically, and cite it accurately. <enter your response here> 2. THE AUDIENCE: Identify and describe a primary audience who has direct influence over the issue you researched and analyzed in your annotated bibliography. Explain the audience’s vested interest (decision-making authority) in the issue and describe any current events or trends that may be currently affecting your audience’s interests. Use credible evidence to indicate the source of your information, integrate it effectively and ethically, and cite it accurately. <enter your response here> 3. AUDIENCE’S POSITION (the audience’s argument): What position does the audience have on the issue you chose? Note that audiences do not always spell out their positions. You will need to conduct research in newspapers, trade publications, and journals to collect the necessary information about your audience’s position. Use credible evidence to indicate the source of your information, integrate it effectively and ethically, and cite it accurately. <enter your response here> 4. AUDIENCE BIAS: What values and beliefs does your audience have that would create biases against your position? Remember that everyone involved in a controversy will have biases, so having them is not a sign of weakness. It just means you would need to consider those biases when writing to the audience. Use credible evidence to indicate the source of your information, integrate it effectively and ethically, and cite it accurately. <enter your response here> 5. YOUR POSITION ON THE ISSUE: Identify and explain your stance on this issue and why you disagree with the audience. THE FIRST SENTENCE OF YOUR RESPONSE WILL BE YOUR THESIS, OR THE ANSWER TO YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION THAT YOU WILL SUPPORT WITH EVIDENCE. Provide reasons for your position. Use credible evidence to indicate the source of your information, integrate it effectively and ethically, and cite it accurately. Use the evidence to defend your position. <enter your response here> 6. CONCESSION and COUNTERARGUMENT: Describe elements of your audience’s position that you sympathize with (concession) so that you can acknowledge the counterarguments to your stance. Next, refute what you can about the audience’s position with evidence-based counterargument of your own. Use credible evidence to indicate the source of your information, integrate it effectively and ethically, and cite it accurately. <enter your response here> 7. EVIDENCE: What types of evidence would your audience expect to see in to be persuaded by your argument? Most audiences who hold decision-making authority over an issue are sophisticated and knowledgeable. Think carefully about what it would take to persuade your audience to change its stance or at least agree to a compromise on the issue. Use credible evidence to indicate the source of your information, integrate it effectively and ethically, and cite it accurately. <enter your response here> 8. GENRE: Find two examples of an advocacy letter that includes cited sources other than the one we went over in class. (Provide links to these examples or submit them along with your completed worksheet). Describe the way in which the authors establish their ethos, or credibility to speak about the issue. Why would the target audience be interested in these authors? Next, describe the structure and format of the advocacy letter. How does that structure and format shape what the authors say and how they say it? <enter your response here> 1. Describe any challenges you encountered in identifying a current and unresolved issue relevant to your field. What types of questions (inquiry) about the topic you chose did you use to identify the issue? 2. Describe the process you used to identify an audience with a vested interest in this issue and with whom you disagree. 3. Identify one thing you learned about your audience that will have the greatest impact on how you shape your argument. Failure to include the End-Page Reflection results in an automatic 10-point deduction in your essay. Make sure you include a works cited or reference page. This assignment, developed by the George Mason Composition Program, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. (CC-BY-SA 4.0) (The Issue Audience and Genre Assignment, in Lesson 12, so that you know what’s coming, and have a good idea of the kind of evidence you’re going to need. You will be using the evidence in your Annotated Bibliography and Synthesis Grid, but you might find you want additional evidence, too.) Requirements: complete