Kaitlin Clinnin (clinnin.1@osu.

edu)
Ohio State University
ENGL 2276 Spring 2015
Assignment 2
Illustrating a Rhetorical Concept
Introduction
Throughout the semester, weve covered a variety of rhetorical concepts and have
analyzed a wide range of texts using a variety of rhetorical methods. Now its time to
share some of that experiential knowledge with other students, instructors, and
rhetoricians around the globe.
The University of Michigan Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative is home to a wiki
that contains information about digital rhetoric including key figures, threshold concepts,
histories, and teaching resources. For this assignment, we will be working with the DRC
Wiki to create a new section of the wiki called Illustrating Rhetorical Concepts. The
purpose of this section is to provide information to DRC Wiki users with basic
information about the rhetorical concept and a provided artifact to analyze using that
particular concept. Your contribution will be a wiki article to this new section.
You may decide to work collaboratively on this assignment, especially considering that it
is somewhat similar to the Artifact Facilitation project. Please note that a collaborative
project will have an additional reflection component on the collaborative experience.
Objective
Upon completion of this assignment, students will be able to:
Define and describe a rhetorical concept for a public audience
Apply a particular rhetorical concept to a selected artifact in order to provide new
insight into an artifacts rhetorical and cultural significance
Identify the conventions of the Wiki article genre and compose a text given the
affordances and constraints for the genre
Production Details
The Wiki article will have multiple parts:
Rhetorical Concept (100-150 words): This section will provide an introduction to the
rhetorical concept for a public audience. Consider what an audience potentially
unfamiliar with rhetoric would be interested in knowing about the concept or how you
can present it in a way that they would be most likely to understand. This section should
include references to class readings and additional resources as citations.
Artifact Presentation (50-100 words): This section will provide relevant background
information on your artifact as well as the artifact itself. The background information
should provide necessary context for an unfamiliar reader to understand your analysis.
You may embed the artifact in the wiki page, or you can include a link to the artifact.
Artifact Analysis (250-500 words): This section will apply the rhetorical concept to your
selected artifact. The analysis should provide greater insight into the artifacts rhetorical

and cultural relevance while also enabling the reader to see how the rhetorical concept
can be applied.
Additional Resources: This section should include links to online and off-line resources
that an interested reader could access for more information about the rhetorical
concept, related artifacts, etc. You must include at least 3 additional resources. Full
MLA citations and hyperlinks are expected.
Collaboration Reflection (250 words): If you choose to work collaboratively, please write
a brief reflection on the nature of your collaboration. From the beginning, how did you
work together? How did you decide on what you should do? How did you assign
responsibilities? What was your contribution to the wiki article; what was your partners
contribution to the wiki article? Is there anything I as the instructor need to know about
your collaboration? This reflection will be separate from the wiki article.
Production Deadlines
Wednesday-Friday March 4-6th: Conference with Kaitlin
Thursday April 16th: Rough draft due to Carmen Dropbox
Monday May 4th: Wiki Entry due by 12 p.m. posted to DRC Wiki page
Assessment
This assignment is worth 20% of your course final grade. I will evaluate the assignment
based on the following criteria:
The description of the rhetorical concept as appropriate for a public audience
The application of the rhetorical concept to an analysis of a cultural artifact
The adherence to wiki genre conventions including citation and hyperlinks
The logical organization and clarity of the writing