Teaching Transfer

I was thinking during our class today about how to create assignments that deal with the ideas of transfer and audience.

Perhaps one assignment might be to write three different e-mails seeking to set up an appointment. Permutation 1 would be: write to a good friend and ask them to meet you for coffee. Permutation 2: write to one of your professors (preferably one who at least knows you by name) asking for an appointment to discuss an assignment. Permutation 3: write to whoever answers the info@whatever.com emails (i.e. begin with Dear Sir or Madam:) requesting an appointment to meet with someone in their office (an example might be an email to Lubbock Lake Landmark requesting a guided tour). As a class, the students could go over these emails and think about what makes them different, even though they are similar(ish) in intent.

Another assignment I thought might be more helpful in audience is to pick a topic in current issues (environmentalism, politics, social trends, etc.) and research it. Then the students could create four different projects from the same information. 1: write a blog post about the topic, 2: write a short editorial to a newspaper whose reader base is far more conservative/liberal than the topic would usually appeal to, 3: write a letter about the issue to a US Congressperson or Senator, and 4: create a flyer advertising an informative event about the topic. The same information in this assignment would lead to four radically different ways of approaching audience and conveying information. A blog post would probably be more personal and make use of inside/esoteric humor or comments. For the editorial, the writer would need to tone down certain viewpoints and make sure not to alienate the reader base. A political letter would need to be free of error and emotional appeals. The flyer would incorporate visual components and require and informational/listing format.

Tell me what you think!