Spring 2004

English 101.10 -- Language and Composition I

Project 3: Public Issues/Public Voices
(Writing for the Web: An introduction to Forum)

For this assignment, you will write for a forum that is significantly different from most print forums: The World Wide Web. You will each create a web site that addresses a public issue.

Write about any issue that affects the public (broadly defined) and can be viewed from two or more perspectives. You will research your topic and cite a minimum of 5-10 sources to support what you say about your issue. The issue you pick does not necessarily have to be a standard "controversial issue" or a big ticket news item (In fact, please avoid writing about overused topics unless you have a plan for presenting the topic in a new or fresh way). You could write about something relating to your major area of study (for example, education majors might write about controveries over standardized testing or homeschooling).

Some places to look for possible issues:

• Browse the editorial section of a newspaper
• Browse through magazines or web pages
• Look at the essays in the Mercury Reader and the sample papers from previous semesters in the Redbird Reader
• Watch or read the news
• Look for ways different or competing perspectives affect you on a day-to-day basis. Consider local policies or campus issues. Keep your 'ears' open as you talk to people.
• If you have philosophical tendencies, your issue might be examining a theory or idea, such as exploring the strong and weak points of a philosophical or theoretical perspective (For example, an English major might compare/contrast two different literary theories and make an argument for why one is more appropriate than another.)
• If you are interested in history, you might write about an issue related to the past (I saw an article a few weeks ago that argued that George Washington was not the first president because those who had been in charge of the Continental Congress were technically presidents, too. It's an interesting, but certainly debatable point.

Note: If you choose to write about a senstive issue, please be careful to choose an approriate audience and to make your topic focused and specific enough to avoid stereotypes and stereotyping. Care should be taken to do suffient research and to avoid making broad or hasty generalizations.

You do not necessarily have to pick a side to argue for in your project, but you can opt to examine two or more sides in detail. (Be aware that deciding to present several sides amounts to thoughtfully researching and presenting the arguments each side might make. You must carefully research the different perspectives on your issue regardless of whether you choose to argue or one side or present all of them.

Take opposing views seriously and do not hastily gloss over them. Try to put yourself in the other side's shoes and understand where they are coming from. The most sucessful projects tend to be the ones in which the writer has been as careful to research and explain an opposing view as he or she has been in articulating his or her own.

Each individual project should consist of 5-10 web pages (each individual web page might be smaller than an ordinary page, so you may need to use more of them). See the Course Requirements page for more information about what needs to be turned in with your project in order for it to be considered complete. Be sure to save rough drafts of your site content and design.

The final unit draft of this project is due on Friday, at the end of the sixth week of class. Bring your content drafts in progress with you each day to class until then.