Socio-political Writing Assignment:

Those who need votes, sponsors, support, or want to get things done, often rely on persuasive writing skills to create logical, emotional, and moral petitions.

Objectives

This assignment assesses your mastery of the Socio-Political Learning Unit objectives:

• Identify forms of persuasive writing in a socio-political writing situation
• Analyze visual images
• Write clear and comprehensible sentences
• Navigate the persuasive writing process

Writing Process

1. Complete all lessons in the Socio-political Learning Unit
2. Complete the Peer Review assignment before the deadline
3. Revise and finalize
4. Submit your final hardcopy and prepared envelope to Dr. Bodily before the deadline
5. Submit electronic copy to eCampus and www.turnitin.com before the deadline

Topic

The appropriate topics link pertaining to your curriculum (Traditional, SAGE, or Service Learning)

Areas of Emphasis

Point-of-view, audience, voice, clarity, action verbs, sensory details, showing description, persuasive appeals (logos, pathos, ethos), and business letter formatting

Format

This letter shall be word processed in MS Word file format, utilizing a minimum of 300 words and a maximum of 600 words, formatted according to business letter guidelines taught in the Learning Unit. This letter does not require sources or a Works Cited page; however, you may provide citations in MLA formatting style to strengthen your Logos.

This assignment also requires you to prepare a professional No. 10 business envelope according to formatting taught in the Learning Unit and the US Postal Service. The envelope must be word processed, and printed in a printer. Place a stamp on your envelope or purchase a pre-stamped envelope from the US Postal Service.

Penalties

Letters will be rejected without grading in the following cases:

• Plagiarized text
• Does not address the topic/objectives
• Late or missing submission to eCampus and/or www.turnitin.com
• Incorrectly formatted (incorrect file and/or rhetorical form)
• Provided no hardcopy letter and/or stamped envelope
• Refused to send letter

Bonus

If you receive a response to your letter before our course concludes, I will add extra-credit to your composition grade. Please let me know via email at the time you receive a response and let me know what the sender said. I enjoy receiving these reports!

Topic Choices

Begin noticing and thinking about images, signs, symbols, and logos you find problematic. For example, a Vietnamese restaurant in Dallas recently choose a red star as part of its logo. The red star may represent communism to many refugees who escaped the Vietnam War and now live in the United States. Is this a good idea for business?

Traditional and SAGE Student Topic Ideas:

1. Capture a photo of a monument. This can be a monument to a person or historical event. Persuade an interested and authorized person or group to remove, alter, or improve the monument.

2. Capture a photo or image of a government's or political organization's agenda. Persuade this organization to discontinue, alter, or improve the image and message behind the image. A few examples may include the following:

• A government agency such as the EPA uses imagery to promote its environmental agenda. Some of this may be propaganda to promote the US President's political party since presidents choose EPA directors.

• A political party such as the Green Party, the Republican, Democratic, Independent, or Libertarian Party uses imagery to promote their political agendas.

3. Capture a photo or image of propaganda. Persuade a person or groups of people who may be hurt by this propaganda to resist its message and act to counter the message. This may include persuading an organization to promote a certain agenda by using their own image, symbol, or logo (create one for the organization).

4. Capture a photo or image of a company logo or advertising imagery. Notice how companies choose to display certain ethnicities or types of people, doing certain things while feeling certain ways, in their visual images. Persuade a company or organization to discontinue, alter, or improve the image and message behind the image. A few examples may include the following:

• Energy company: Sustainable energy companies use logos or images of green pastures and clean air on advertisements. Does this work for them? Fossil Fuel energy companies also use logos and images to promote their energy products. Do their images work for their type of resource?

• Fast Food: In the case of fast food restaurants, Burger King often uses images of Black Americans more than other ethnic groups. Why? Black Americans experience greater chances of suffering from diabetes and heart disease which are linked to diet. Is there a problem with this?

• Textiles: Clothing manufactures often display very thin women wearing their latest fashions. Is this a problem?

• Beauty: A plethora of companies display certain images and forms of beauty. Is this a problem?

• Groceries: Many food manufactures display farms, bucolic sunsets, healthy plants and animals on their product packaging. Often slogans such as "all natural" accompany these images. How does this reconcile with the fact that most food in packages is grown indoors, on feed lots, and within monoculture environments? How can the food be natural when its grown or raised with artificial fertilizer, chemicals, feed, and then preserved by more chemicals?

5. Create an original image for a company, church, government, non-profit, or other organization and persuade a leader of the organization to adopt your image.