Essay #2 builds on the research you have already done this semester, even as the writing of the project itself will demonstrate why additional research will surely need to be done. Likewise, this project will most likely involve your translating the academic research you've done (library, Internet, interview, observation) to an audience that does not have ready access to the resources and research you've had access to for Essay #1. Therefore, you'll have to bridge the "knowledge gaps" between your advanced knowledge of this topic/issue and that which your audience may or may not hold.

The following parts are crucial to writing for transforming academic discourses into "popular" discourses:

• kairos: the writer demonstrates through reference to culture/society or other writers or both why this topic is relevant now, but unlike the academic essay (which tends to be more formulaic), the popular piece tends to also choose examples from culture/society/history that explain why this essay connects to its audience as a particular group with specific needs/interests/desires.
• ethos: the writer demonstrates his/her credibility by choosing effective and persuasive sources to include in the essay (and does so with enough contextual information that a 'Works Cited' pay isn't necessarily needed), using only those sources most suited to the current argument, bridging the gaps between the reader's broad/basic knowledge of the topic and writer's advanced (i.e., researched) knowledge of the topic; the writer also chooses example and details that demonstrate his/her good will toward the audience and/or the issue, thus making the writer's "character" part of the argument.
• logos: the writer uses the most logical arguments available to him/her and attempts to convince the reader that these arguments/suggestions/plans/etc. are likewise the most logical course for the reader to follow.
• pathos: since non-academic audiences are not necessarily constrained by the logics of disciplinary affiliations, writers trying to connect their work to non-academic audience will often find ways to engage the empathies, sympathies, concerns (i.e., the emotions) of this audience; ethical writers do not attempt to manipulate the audience by "hyped" stories or "over-wrought" examples.
• genre: different kinds of expository writing work in different genre conventions (those codes and formats that readers expect), so a speech has a different structure from a magazine editorial, which has a different structure and voice from a news story; effective writers think of the genre conventions their working with so that they do not violate to radically their audiences expectations, which might make readers distrust the writing/writer.

These five "traits" will be central to the evaluation of Essay #2.

Cover Memo: Essay #2

For the Writer's Memo, I want you to demonstrate your abilities as the type of writer who knows his/her choices, makes decisions carefully and effectively. If we spend two weeks (or more, sometimes) inventing information, drafting possible versions of a text, responding to each other, revising our texts, etc., then you should be able to talk about the processes you went through to get to this finished draft. To that end, please draft a memo to me, as teacher-evaluator, to help me see your particular processes and what vision you have for this text (that I might have a context in which to read). Below is a template you can use for your memo:

You should be able to produce this memo in one single-spaced page. If you can't say it in one page, cut cut cut. Sometimes, to write reflective/analytical pieces like these, we start by rambling, trying to figure out what we have to say. Fine, but go back and get rid of the "fluff." I won't accept them if they're not typed and single-spaced in Times New Roman 12 pt. font.