authentic writing assignment

“Write a 500-750 word, submission-ready argument/persuasive piece in an authentic (real-world) genre, appropriate for (but not necessarily submitted to) a real site on the web.

Examples include a letter to editor, a Yelp or Open Table restaurant review, a or movie review, a petition at , a book review at Goodreads, etc., an essay at , a proposal at GoFundMe, etc. There are other options as well, subject to my approval. Please ask.

The purpose of this project is to practice a selection of genres most familiar to the general public and notice how the forms and features change from genre to genre and publication to publication. Even the letter-to-the-editor genre is quite different in Newsday, for example, than it is in the New York Times. This is an authentic writing project in that the piece would be written with a real purpose, in a real-world genre, and could be (but would not have to be) sent to a real publication. A draft writing will be shared with the class and open to peer review.”