Writing for the Public

1.     In the eighteenth century, armed forces could fight in open fields, and they were on the high seas.

2.     Today, they can clash on the ground, the sea, under the sea, and when they are airborne.

3.     To take this exam, you need to know the driving rules, how to drive an eighteen-wheeler, and where these vehicles are allowed to go.

4.     The quarter horse skipped, pranced, and was sashaying onto the track.

5.     The duties of the job include preparation of meals, babysitting, and house-cleaning.

6.     Jim was tidy, marked by politeness and good manners.

7.     She enjoyed parties, presents, and to have her friends around her.

8.     He was running, lifting weights, and tried everything he could imagine to get into shape.

9.     Follow this advice to lower your risk of having a heart attack:

·    Have your blood pressure checked regularly.

·    Don’t smoke.

·    Eat nutritious foods.

·    Have regular medical checkups.

10.  The opposition came from the establishment, the government, and from women who wanted to maintain the status quo.

11.  The grade is based on three factors: what you do in the final examination, writing a term paper, and class work.

12.  To lose weight you should:

·      exercise.

·      alcohol intake.

·      good eating is key.

·      get lots of sleep.

13.  Helen was praised by her vice president, and her assistant admired her.

14.  When she hired new people, she looked for applicants that were intelligent, able to stay focused, and able to speak clearly.

What does a Profile do? 

It offers a clear statement as to why this person is significant in terms of this issue.

It pinpoints a distinct purpose as to how a focus on this person adds to readers’ understanding of the issue

It speaks to a specific audience and connects the subject to this audience

It includes concrete details concerning person’s life and work.

It employs logical arguments (evidence and reasons) for readers to see this person as interesting and important

It employs emotional arguments that enable readers to connect to this person

It includes background information so that readers gain a full sense of the person and his/her relationship to it

It offers a thick description of this person’s life/work (as it applies to the issue)

It includes distinctive quotations that help readers gain a thick understanding of the person under study

It creates an exigence for readers to understand why they should read about this person right now

A Profile Does Not

Include extraneous information that detracts from the purpose of the profile

Include quotations that are mundane and unnecessary

As the assignment description details, a fact sheet informs a specific readership about the most basic and the most impressive facts behind an issue. These facts function to raise awareness about the issue, alert readers to the existence of the problem, or clarify for readers the extent of the problem.

Remember that the fact sheet should be between 1,200 and 1,500 words. These two sheet of paper should be filled with rich and meaningful information.

As you compose your fact sheet you want to think about the following questions:

Audience

Who is my audience?

What is their knowledge about the issue?

What are their values and basic beliefs?

How does this issue address these values and basic beliefs?

What does this audience need to know?

What do you want them to learn about this issue?

What facts, data, definitions, and statistics will be persuasive and compelling to them?

Purpose and Argument

Given your audience and your issue, what is the specific purpose of this fact sheet?

Why is this purpose important?

How does each piece of information included in this fact sheet connect to, affirm, and extend the purpose of the document?

What definitions do you need to provide your audience, so that they know exactly what you’re talking about?

How is each piece of information providing reasons and evidence for your argument? For example, if you were doing a project on Oakland’s safety issues, you would need to ask how do statistics about burglaries in Oakland (evidence) reinforce the overarching argument that Oakland is not safe? You would also need to question whether or not evidence regarding crime rates in Monroeville belong in this fact sheet.

How is each piece of information persuasive to your specific audience?

Arrangement

How do you choose to begin your fact sheet?

Why is this a good strategy to introduce your issue to your specific audience?

What information does your reader need to know first, second, third, and fourth? Why?

What sections have you created in your fact sheet?

How do these sections gather like information together, providing thick evidence for your argument?

How do you introduce/define each section so readers know what these sections are about?

Citations

Remember to cite your information using the citation guidelines provided in the post below.

Citation Formatting:

Throughout the document, use superscript to identify your use of source materials. At the end of the document, provide the citation information in a short list using 9pt font. Use MLA citation formatting. See these sites for guidance:

Long Island University’s Site

Purdue University’s Site

Example:

Pittsburgh Employers Cutting Health Benefits

Throughout the country, companies across the country are cutting their health insurance benefits by 35%.1 A number of Pittsburgh companies have cut benefits by 35% or more.

·      Delmonte has reduced benefits by 50%²

·      Heinz has reduced benefits by 60%²

End of Document

¹Reed, Sarah. “Health Benefits Reduced in USA.” New York Times (25 June 2007): 9A.

² Rosenlund, Steph. “Pittsburgh Health Benefits by Company.” PittsburghHealth. 2008. 12 Sept. 2008. <http.www.pittsburghhealth.org> 

Claim: argument

Reasons: statements that support the claim (clauses that follow the “because” statement)

Evidence: examples, data, or testimony that support the reasons

Premise: assumptions the audience must have to move from the claim to the reasons

Example:

The drinking age should be lowered (claim/argument) because other countries have lower drinking ages and do not confront similar problems with drinking and driving, teen death, or early alcoholism (reasons).

Evidence:      

·      Italy has no drinking age and has a 31% less rate of alcoholism in people 18-28           

·      Switzerland has no drinking age and reports a 42% less rate of drinking and driving among 18-25 year olds

What is the working premise here? We want to lower our percentage rates of drinking and driving, teen alcohol death, and early alcoholism—these are problems in our society that we want to get rid of.

Organization: 

• Begin with a purpose statement to alert readers as to the purpose of the document
•  Offer a forecasting sentence in introduction that informs readers as to the order of events in the document
• Lead with the most important information or information the reader needs to know first before reading the rest of the document (definitions or explanations of a concept, for example)
• Think about the issue from the readers’ point of view and then organize accordingly
• Create categories/sections of different kinds of arguments that support the overarching argument of the text
• Avoid repetition of information
• Offer logical appeals through the structure; each section does something; makes its own argument

Purpose Statement: The purpose of this fact sheet is to …. (connect the reader to the issue)

Forecasting Statement: tells the reader what the document will cover and previews the major parts of the text.

Example:

So that you might learn about the ways school-based dance programs can reduce child obesity, this fact sheet will discuss the problem of childhood obesity, the ways dance can reduce childhood obesity, the kinds of dance programs that exist in schools today, and the ways schools can better integrate dance into their curricula.

Coherence:

• Create a logical flow to the document
• Create logical links from one section to the next so readers know what the organizing principle for the text is
• Consider reader’s expectations as to what should follow what: Put “like” materials together. Example: Problems with energy dependency should be followed by the benefits of energy dependence

Verbal-Visual Coherence

• Integrate verbal and visual information
• Create close connections between visual and verbal information by referring to visual in the text (“As Figure 1.3 illustrates…)
• Place visuals near the text that discusses them
• Integrate visuals into text through this three step process

1. Introduce the visual
2. Explain the visual
3. Help readers draw conclusions from the visual

Accessibility

• Help readers to understand the purpose and arrangement of document through a purpose statement and a forecasting statement
• Make sure readers can easily retrieve important information
• Create pathways to information by creating sections with headings and, possibly, subheadings

1. Headings should be informative for readers, meaning readers should be able to tell what the section is about through the heading
2. Headings should be discernible from the rest of the text. Put them in bold or underline them and then provide explanations of the section, offering the claims, reasons, and evidence

•  Use blank space to separate sections from one another
• Use bulleted lists in your sections

1.  Bullets should separate important information and pieces of evidence that support the overarching claim
2.  Bullets should be arranged in some kind of logical order (most to least important, for example)

Be Prepared

• Research your subject and the issue
• Learn the vocabulary of the issue
• Ask your interviewee: Is there anything I can read about the issue before we talk?
• Create an angle or decide on an objective

Your Objective

• What do you want to get out of the interview?
• Why are you interviewing this particular person?
• What can s/he offer your readers that they cannot get from another source?

Interview Questions

• Write out questions beforehand that help you reach your objective
• Create follow-up questions
• Note the crucial questions that you know you want your interivwee to answer
• Set the tone with the first question
• Begin questions with what, how, why
• Allow the interviewee to offer information: “Tell me about the recycling project here in Oakland”; “Tell me about your involvement in Bike Pittsburgh”; “Help me understand how NCLB affects your teaching”
• Respond to your interviewee’s answers; take advantage of interesting moments

What to Avoid

• Closed-ended questions where the interviewee could respond with a yes or no
• Loaded questions or trigger words: Bad: Why do you think Oakland is such a mess? Good: Tell me what you think of Oakland
• Arguing with your source
• Focusing on the negative first: Bad: Tell me why Pitt can’t figure out recycling. Good: What have been Pitt’s recycling successes? What have been its failures?
• Asking two questions at once: What are the greatest challenges of finding adequate healthcare and what benefits do you see in getting health care?
• Questions that are too bulky: Since the busing system started in 1965 and the past few years have been difficult, what are the most pressing problems Pittsburgh busing has had?
• Commenting—just ask the questions

Get Out There

• See what your interviewee does and participate in it: you might participate in a Bike Pittsburgh event (critical mass); go to a breast cancer awareness event; observe athletic facilities at the Peterson center; participate in a clean up day in Oakland

Basics

• Arrive early
• Have all your materials with you
• Dress appropriately
• Be organized with your questions
• Show good manners
• Pick a good seat

Audience

Before you compose your fact sheet, you want to think about the “rhetoricity” of this document or, as Bowdon and Scott write, its “situatedness and connection to a specific audience.”

When thinking about audience, you want to reflect on these questions.

•  Who is your audience?
•  What are their values, needs and concerns?
•  What do they know about this issue?
• How will you introduce them to the topic?
• How can you meet them where they are and then offer them new, compelling information?

Review “facts” you brought in for your topic, thinking specifically about how you’ve answered the above questions.

Check the information you think will be most compelling.

“About” Page

An “About” page should introduce readers to you and your topic. It should also set the tone for the relationship you’re establishing between you and your readers as well as the scope of the discussion.

How does your partner compose his/her about page?

What’s working? What is effective?

How might your partner compose a more effective “About” page?

Blog Entry #1

Your blog entries should engage your issue from different perspectives, creating and sustaining a conversation between you and your readers. This first blog should introduce readers to the issue.

What is your partner doing in this first blog entry? How is he/she introducing the issue to readers?

How is your partner reaching out to his/her audience? What strategies is he/she using?

What relationship is he/she establishing with the audience? How can you tell?

What’s working in this post?

How might your partner improve this post? 

As we discussed in class last night, we need to start thinking about our interview subjects and interview for the profile. This proposal should help you to get thinking about your interview subject and the interview itself. By next Wednesday at 3pm, please respond to the following prompts by using the comment function on this blog.

1. Identify three or four potential interview subjects. Please include the person’s title.

2. Why would each of these subjects help you to educate your audience about the issue under discussion?

3. What is the likelihood of you interviewing each of these subjects? **It would be wise to contact these subjects this week to see if he/she would be interested in an interview.**

4. Provide the contact information for each of the interview subjects here. Email and phone are the most useful. If you need to keep your information confidential, let me know that you have made contact with this individual. 

5. Identify dates when you would be able/hope to interview your subject. Although you need to accommodate your subject’s schedule, you should also look at due dates in our course syllabus. You need to have a typed transcript of your interview by October 1st, so plan your interview accordingly. If you have scheduled your interview, let me know the date you have chosen.

6. What questions or concerns do you have about your interview?