Project One

Composing Social Identity: Profile of a Place

Project One gives you the opportunity to practice several important academic skills: analysis,
data collection (through both primary and secondary research), and multimodal composing.
This project will also allow you to investigate how identities are socially constructed.

To perform analysis on a specific subject, you break the whole down into its component parts,
looking beneath the surface in order to discover more about its nature. Doing so allows you to
learn things you otherwise wouldnt know. Analysis is not a single skill, but rather requires a
group of related skills. For example, observation is usually required. Most analyses have an
informative function as well. Most professions and academic disciplines will expect you to
undertake analysis in one form or another. Thus, we use Project One to practice the critical
thinking and composing skills needed to learn to be thorough analysts, researchers, and
multimodal composers all while identifying and practicing effective writing habits.

The Assignment - Profile of a Space or Place:

In this assignment, you will compose a profile of a physical public place or spaces identity that
allows readers to see this space in unexpected ways. Imagine that your profile will appear as a
linear text in an online zine or website. You must therefore include at least two visuals within
your profile that contribute to the effectiveness of the profile. Your profile must also have an
engaging, creative title. Student with registered visual disabilities may include audio tracks
rather than visuals with instructor permission.

This profile should be between 1000-2500 words in length (double-spaced pages, 12-pt font).
It should include APA in-text citations where appropriate as well as an APA-style References
page (which does not count toward the expected length). The visuals you include do not count
toward the expected length. Your Reference page should include at least one credible textual
secondary source and the visuals you include; any interview material should be correctly cited
within the profile as a personal communication.

Your profile should target an audience of external readers (like your classmates and your
instructor) who have never been to the place/space youre writing about. How can you make
such readers care about the place youve selected? What meaningful takeaway can your profile
provide them?

Youve got a lot to think through as you carefully compose this project. First, consider the
genre: a profile. Profiles (whether they are about a person, a place, or an event) accomplish the
following:

Provide some insight into the subject, taking readers behind the scenes to reveal key
details that are not widely known.
Include key details: describe the space/place, offering details that appeal to the senses as
well as dialogue and often expert opinion.
 Hold readers interest while informing them about the space/place. How you choose to
organize your profile contributes to how well it engages readers. So too do your creative
choices, and what takeaway youre crafting for readers.

It will help you compose the profile if you think about the space or place as a text that needs to
be read critically and analyzed. As with any text, you will probably need to read it more than
once to fully understand it. This means visiting the space/place and collecting primary research
data (through observations and perhaps interviews).

So: what place or space will you select? Please select a physical place/space local to where you
are right now, as you work through the stages of this writing project. Youll likely need to visit
the space more than once, so it is crucial that you have regular physical access to it to collect
data. Do *not* pick the place where you are employed. You wont be able to be critically
objective enough to collect the data you need. Data collection requires all of your attention
which you cant give if youre also trying to work in that space at the same time.

It is also important that you think carefully about the scope/size of the space you select.
Selecting an entire airport wont work: its much too big. You cant collect specific enough data
over a space that size. Likewise, a tiny broom closet in a fast food restaurant is likely too small a
space. Be strategic in selecting your space/place for this project: why does it fit our assignment
well? Remember, the place you select needs to be public: the dining room in your house wont
work. Neither will your cubicle at the office work.

And of course, identity is a complex concept; each of us has many facets to our identities.
Sex and gender contribute to individual identity; so too do race and ethnicity. Many other
factors (like our age, religion, where we live, and what activities we enjoy) contribute to our felt
sense of who we are. So: how can a place or space have an identity or identities? Can you
look beyond a spaces obvious, intended identity and uncover something unexpected? Has your
space/place taken on an identity not connected to its original purpose and design?

This assignment is made more difficult by the fact that you must write the final draft in a reader-
centered way rather than a writer-centered way while demonstrating your ability to employ
accepted academic conventions. This means embracing content revision between the rough draft
and final draft stages, carefully crafting an introduction and a conclusion to your drafts, working
carefully on transitions between sentences and paragraphs, and editing and proofreading before
the final draft deadline.

Here is a brief summary of the Project 1 requirements; please see the full Grading Rubric on the
next page for a more detailed breakdown.

Profile length: between 1000-2500 words

Target audience: readers of an online zine or a website
Formatting: double-spacing, 12-pt. font
2 (or more) visuals integrated into the text of the profile
1 (or more) credible textual secondary source integrated into the text of the profile
An engaging and creative title
Reference page (APA style)
Rubric for Writing Project 1
Note: This projects final draft is worth 150 points.

Criteria Expectations Points

Audience - Profile has a creative and relevant title
Awareness
(5 points) - Audiences needs determined and addressed effectively

- Voice, tone, and diction is audience appropriate

Introduction - Grabs readers attention effectively

(5 points)
- Introduction prepares readers for the content of the profile

Incorporation of - Provides specific sensory details so that readers can see the
Primary Research space sufficiently
(observational
notes, interviews, -Does not stray from the significant point of the profile by
etc.) (70 points) including irrelevant or overly general details

-Outside of purely descriptive physical details, the draft informs

readers about the space/place in substantial and relevant ways

-Other primary data collected (such as interviews) is

incorporated effectively and is meaningful to the goal of the
profile.

-Interview material (if present) is presented rhetorically, with

careful consideration of when to paraphrase, summarize, or
directly quote

-Provides a meaningful takeaway for readers who arent

familiar with/havent visited the space/place being profiled

-Profile convinces readers to see the place in a surprising or

unexpected way

-It is clear the writer spent meaningful and sufficient time

collecting data at their chosen place/space

Incorporation of - Credible sources selected

Secondary Research
(written sources, -Written sources provide meaningful and relevant insight into
visuals, audio files, the place/space or the analysis of the place/space
etc.)
(45 points) -Written sources are effectively placed within the text

-Written sources are effectively connected to the authors

surrounding text
 -Visuals/audio files are effectively chosen, enhancing the
profile in meaningful ways

-Visuals/audio files are effectively placed within the text,

enhancing the profiles effectiveness

-The secondary sources supplement, not dominate, the profile

Conclusion - Provides closure to the profile

(5 points)
- Reinforces the specific takeaway of the profile

- Leaves a strong final impression on readers

Citation and - Sources summarized, paraphrased, or quoted appropriately for

Documentation APA in-text citation guidelines
(10 points)
- References page adheres to APA guidelines

Final Draft - Transitions used effectively between sentences and between

Preparation paragraphs
(10 points)
- Free of grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors

- Organized effectively

-Clear evidence of sufficient time spent editing and

proofreading
Major Project Steps:

Step 1: Select the Place/Space for your Profile

See the above suggestions/cautions to help you make your selection. Review the conversations
youve had with your Instructor in the Project 1 invention assignments as well.

Step 2: Conduct Primary Research

Go and collect data at the space youve chosen. Take detailed and organized observational notes
(this process work will be required as we move through this projects steps). Multiple trips to
your space/place will likely be needed to collect data. Perhaps youll want to conduct interviews
with those who use the place. Its up to you it depends on how you want readers to see your
chosen space, and what takeaway youre hoping for. Remember, your profile seeks to create
new knowledge and rethink what is known about your chosen space, the people who spend time
there, and what it all means for the spaces surprising identity.

Step 3: Conduct Secondary Research

To uncover a surprising identity for your place/space, youll need to know about its intended
identity. This means researching the history of the place. Local or national newspapers,
websites, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and more: all might help provide contextual
information to aid your research (and the drafting of your profile). Use secondary sources to
provide social, historical, and cultural context for your readers on the particular place youre
profiling.

Step 4: Compose a Draft of your Profile

Before you begin drafting, compose a clear thesis statement for yourself: what is your profile
trying to accomplish? What is the surprising takeaway youre trying to *show* readers? Even
though you may not feel youve exactly figured out the takeaway for readers, or what aspect of
the place youre focusing on that will surprise readers, it is important to articulate what you think
this will be, and then compose a rough draft a full length rough draft. The very process of
composing the draft will force you to organize your thoughts; it will also produce new thinking
about the space. A first, writer-centered rough draft is a crucial step in the writing process. You
should include at least two visuals in this rough draft as well it is just as important to get
feedback on these selections as it is on your writing. Most writers need to write a draft for
themselves first before writing a more external reader-centered draft.

Step 5: Provide and Obtain Written Feedback on the Profile Rough Draft
You should receive written feedback from two of your classmates to deepen your understanding
of the assignment and to learn how informed external readers respond to your writing. You will
also provide your own written feedback on two of the Project 1 drafts of your classmates. The
critical thinking skills required to respond to your classmates rough drafts are the same skills
you need to revise your own writing. Through the peer review process, everyones
understanding of Project 1 improves.

Step 6: Conduct More Primary Research

For many writers, a first draft reveals what the writer *really* wants to write about (or needs to
write about). Based on the feedback you receive on your Profile rough draft, many of you will
likely need to return to your space/place and collect more data (which might be sensory details,
interviews, or notes on how the space is used at different times of the day). You should have a
better sense of what data you need now, allowing you to really hone in on this round of data
collection.

Step 7 (optional): Conduct More Secondary Research

Based on the feedback you received on your rough draft and your own new data collection, you
might need to locate additional secondary sources that will help your readers engage with your
profile and its intended takeaway. You might also need to locate new visuals to include in your
profile.

Step 8: Compose a New Draft of your Profile

Based on the feedback you received on your Profile rough draft, and the new research youve
done, revise the draft into a more compelling and effective Profile (given our assignment grading
criteria). Before you revise, craft a new thesis statement for yourself, articulating the surprising
takeaway youre trying to show readers. Even as this thesis statement might not appear within
your profile, use it guide all your revision decisions. Remember, to revise means to re-see, to
re-imagine, the content of your writing. Revision is much more than changing a word here and
there, or working on transitions between paragraphs. Thats editing. True revision is substantial
work, and often means adding new sections to your project, deleting old sections, and
rearranging existing sections.

Step 9: Submit your Work

After completing Project 1, you will need to submit your work in multiple ways. First, you
should submit a Word-compatible version of your profile to Blackboard through the Assignment
submission link in the appropriate Weekly module. Next, you need to embed all drafts in your
Digication digital portfolio. Include any feedback (such as peer reviews and instructor
commentary) in the Project 1 area of your digital portfolio as well.

Step 10: Reflect on Your Work

Upon completion of Project 1, you should reflect on your learning experience. For some ideas
about how to frame your reflections, review the digital portfolio portions in each Weekly area of
our Blackboard site. You should reflect on all of the WPA Outcomes and Habits of Mind (HOM)
in relationship to what you learned while completing Project 1. In this meta-reflection, reflect
generally about the process of working through the stages of Project 1 as well. Outside of the
HOM and WPA Outcomes, what did you learn in Project 1? What was hardest? Why? What
did you like best? Why? What didnt you learn that you hoped to? Why? Use these questions
to get your thinking started for this Project 1 meta-reflection, but dont limit yourself to just these
questions.

Remember, all course reflections (meta-reflections, HOMs, WPA Outcomes, etc.) take place
within your digital portfolio in Digication. For tips on how to format and edit your digital
portfolio, refer to the information in the digital portfolio modules in the course Blackboard site.

Timeline
Please see the Calendar and Weekly content areas in our Blackboard site.