PWR 1: Analysis and Research-Based Argument

The assignment sequence below aims to engage students in the serious practice of academic analysis, college-level research, and argument, focusing on how to distinguish between primary and secondary sources and learning how to gather, evaluate, and integrate a range of sources into their own arguments. Please read this assignment sequence carefully and use it as the basis for writing a detailed set of assignments that are tailored to your class and your topic. These assignments will provide the basis for all PWR 1 syllabi.

Assignment Sequence for PWR 1

1) Rhetorical analysis. Rhetorical analysis will introduce students to basic rhetorical principles, including the elements of the rhetorical situation (purpose, audience, writer’s stance) and the range of appeals (ethos, pathos, logos). Students will use these principles to analyze how a particular text makes an argument.

2) Contextual analysis. Contextual analysis will introduce students to methods for analyzing rhetoric in particular conceptual, situational, or historical contexts. This may be a stand-alone assignment, a linked assignment leading up to the research-based argument, or it may be re-cast as one of the elements of the research-based argument project, such as a major annotated bibliography or a popular article.

3) Research-based argument. Students will write a well-supported, focused argument drawing on library and Web-based research that:

• demonstrates a clear understanding of the problem it addresses.
• engages successfully with opposing views or multiple perspectives.
• incorporates source material purposefully, gracefully, and ethically.
• enacts appropriate rhetorical choices based on the writer’s purpose.

The research-based argument assignment may include some, but not all, of the following:

• Research proposal
• Annotated bibliography
• Oral presentation (keeping in mind that substantial work on oral and multimedia presentations will be reserved for PWR 2)
• Peer review
• Popular article/op ed/satire/yes-yes paper
• Memo/ reflection on student’s writing
• Outline
• Multiple Drafts
• Research-based argument final draft
• CWP portfolio

Since the research-based argument has multiple parts, the overall process must be carefully planned and scheduled (in the syllabus as well as in class) in order to avoid overwhelming the students. Instructors report that is important to have students begin work on the project by Week 4 or Week 5 of the quarter at the latest. It’s also essential that students be introduced to the library resources of Stanford early in the research process. This is done in two ways: students complete SKIL (Stanford’s Key to Information Literacy), an online tutorial developed by Green Library; and students attend a library workshop.

Apart from the three major writing assignments, students may be asked to do a significant amount of informal writing, including weblogs, journals, online discussions, outlines, parts of drafts, etc.

Overall, the total amount of polished, final-draft writing each student should expect to complete is between 7,500 words (25 pages at 300 words per page) and 9,000 words (30 pages at 300 words per page).

We have learned that we must take special care to make sure that students understand the relationships among the assignments. While different instructors will conceptualize the major assignments in a variety of ways, it is crucial that students understand both the coherence of the overall course design as well as its comparability in terms of both workload and content to other PWR 1 sections. Helping students understand how one assignments feeds into the next will help achieve this goal.