Reaserch on Materialism

Activity 18: Considering Your Task and Your Rhetorical Situation – The Writing Task

Up until this point, you have been paying careful attention to a single text, working hard to understand the writer’s argument, including how he develops and supports that argument. But Andrew Lam is just one voice in the conversation—and in fact, the argument he makes about consumer culture and garbage production participates in several ongoing conversations about these and related issues. Now it is your turn to respond to these issues by joining a conversation of your choice.

Writers respond to rhetorical situations by taking rhetorical action. That is, they target specific audiences and occasions and use their words to change how others think, act, or feel. For this assignment, you will take rhetorical action in two ways: research and advocacy. You will first research, interpret, and synthesize multiple sources that deepen your audience’s understanding of the issue. The research option will thus be a reading-based argument essay that may respond directly to Lam’s article as one of the sources.

Be mindful of what you research because after your essay is complete, you will use the information you have gathered to create an advocacy project. You will develop a communication plan and artifacts (e.g., PSAs, emails, posters, digital stories, tweets, policy recommendations, infographics, etc.) directed at changing your audience’s response to the issue. You will present your advocacy project to the class. But you do not need to stop there. You can implement a change in your school or community, such as adopting “The Last Straw” program (a program aimed at eliminating single-use plastics), creating a school composting program, or persuading school administrators and raising funds to install campus hydration stations that encourage the use of refillable water bottles.

BOTH steps of this assignment are required to include the following:

· Citations from multiple sources (for the advocacy option, these may appear in the artifacts as footnotes, in-text citations, links, references, expert testimony—whatever is most appropriate for the genre selected)

· A works-cited list

· Reading-based argumentation

· An answer to a question at issue

· Appropriate and effective use of genre conventions

See below for additional directions for step one.

Step #1: Research Project

Write a 1,000 to 1,500-word research paper responding to a question at issue related to the topics of consumer culture and waste management. Begin by designing and conducting a research project investigating your question. Consider the work that others have done to address this issue. Gather, analyze, and evaluate evidence from multiple sources. Look for significant trends in your data. Present your findings through a well-organized essay crafted for an academic audience.

In addition to reading scholarly sources (i.e., sources vetted through a peer-review process and published by academic presses), you may also conduct research by doing any of the following:

· Obtain a food scale and weigh your food waste after each meal. Record your data in a spreadsheet. Analyze trends in your data and draw conclusions using evidence-based reasoning. Include graphs or charts of your data in your research essay.

· Conduct field research at a grocery store on any of the following: product packaging; product origin; product expiration dates; consumer use of plastic, paper, or reusable bags; waste management, etc. Include photographs in your research essay.

· Conduct field research at a waste management facility. Take a tour or attend a class if possible. Many waste management facilities offer educational programs to the public, including classes in home composting.

Pairing Up Research is usually conducted by a community of scientists working together. If you prefer to engage in a group experience, you may work with 1-2 other people for both the research and advocacy portion of the assignment. However, you will need to fill out a group contract and get teacher approval. Once you have contracted to work with a group, you can not switch out of the group.