The Specifics:

• Length: 750-1000 words

• Draft: Include a draft version of the SOGC along with each major project draft. The draft may be shorter and include choices-in-progress—steps you’re planning to take but are still working out in revision. 

 

One of the central goals of this course is to prompt you to think more critically and specifically about the choices you make when composing. In this vein, as a part of each major project (nonlinear, remediation, and transmedia advocacy) you will complete a Statement of Goals and Choices. 

 

The SOGC is based on the work of Jody Shipka, who states that it challenges you to “demonstrate rhetorical awareness and communicative flexibility by describing how those choices impacted, positively or otherwise, the meanings [your] texts are able to make” (118). 

 

For each SOGC, you should answer the following questions: 

 

1. What, specifically, is this piece trying to accomplish—above and beyond satisfying the basic requirements outlined in the prompt? In other words, what work does, or might, this piece do? For whom? In what contexts? 
    

2. What specific choices did you make to accomplish the goal(s) you outlined in your response above? Consider the rhetorical principles, methods, materials and technologies (everything from pen and paper to Photoshop) that you chose in your process. Include choices that you might not have consciously made, such as those that were made for you when you opted to work with certain genres, materials and technologies. 
    

3. Why did you end up pursuing this plan as opposed to the others you came up with? How did the various choices listed above allow you to accomplish things that other sets or combinations of choices would not have?
    

4. How did you draw on research and course readings when creating your project? Here you should discuss at least 3 sources, at least two of which should be from the course readings. The final source can also be from the course, or it may be research that you sought out on your own for the purpose of this project. In answering this question, consider how you can articulate the theoretical grounding behind your work, connecting that groundwork to your goals and choices.

 

Include your SOGC on your website, either as a link or separate page. Since I will read this text first, consider how you’re using this writing to justify your choices and argue for your particular approach to the challenge of the prompt. In grading your final project, I will consider both how the SOGC helps me understand your choices as a writer, as well as how detailed and specific your SOGC is as a text. 

 

As there are many possible avenues to take in these major projects—many of which I haven’t thought of—the SOGC is your chance to illustrate your composition process and the thought that went into this piece. The more specific the better here—think of this as a piece of argumentative writing where you are backing up claims with evidence from your own work. In general it is better to outline fewer choices in more detail and depth rather than explaining more choices on just a surface level. 

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Examples of student projects with Statements of Goals and Choices

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