Your rough draft will include two items: A draft of a genre that you wrote (the ″Genre Centerpiece″) A draft of your reflection essay The Genre Centerpiece The Genre Centerpiece is a piece of writing in your chosen genre (see below list for approved genres). Choose from one of the following genres for this project: Blog article (Professional or semi-professional blogs only; options: travel blog, sports blog, mommy blog, food blog, or another special interest blog.), newspaper article (options: feature story, sports article, home & living article, etc.), tabloid article, magazine article (options: feature story, fashion article, etc.), encyclopedia or Wikipedia article, newsletter, quick reference guide, Lesson plan, personal memoir (of one event in your life). These are the only genres that are options for this project. Topic/content for the writing piece: The topic for the writing piece that you create should be original and local (or personal, depending on the genre). This is not a ″found″ genre—this is a writing piece that you are writing and designing yourself. Reflection Essay Once your genre centerpiece is complete, you will write a reflection essay on the process of creating your genre centerpiece. For this essay, write about the following prompts: What was your process for finding samples, analyzing your genre, and then writing in your genre? (Think about the steps you took to complete this project), How did writing in an unfamiliar genre impact your understanding of genre and conventions? And what did you learn as a result of this project? (Think about what you learned about genre, writing, the rhetorical situation, etc.) If you need additional help with essay writing, please see the following resources: paragraphing (Links to an external site.), introductions (Links to an external site.), conclusions (Links to an external site.), and transitions (Links to an external site.) between ideas. Format for the reflection essay: Length: 700-900 words (~2.5 to 4 pages, not including the genre itself) Formatting: Double spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font (or similar), 1-inch margins, and use MLA formatting for formatting the first page. Note: There should be no research outside of the genre samples used for this assignment (e.g. no dictionary definitions, no secondary research, etc.)
