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Project 4: Informational Campaign

Except where otherwise specified, you are not required to wait until the due date to complete and submit your work. Due dates are listed on the course calendar.

Milestones

1. Team contract
2. Genre analysis report
3. Storyboard & mockup
4. First draft, ready for peer review + Report
5. Presentation
6. Final draft, ready to be graded

Overview

As part of a small group of collaborating students, you will create an informational campaign geared towards USC Upstate students or a local community in Spartanburg and/or Greenville. The topic of this campaign is up to you. A non exhaustive list of sample ideas includes the following:

• effectively using public transit,
• how and what to recycle (or other practice affecting the environment),
• volunteering for and supporting a local nonprofit organization (e.g. Humane Society, Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Clubs of the Upstate),
• early cancer detection (or other health-related topic),
• preserving a natural resource of some sort,
• how to find the best deal on textbooks,
• how to apply for financial aid.

The Details

The following are requirements of this project:

• Hand code the website using a text editor. No WYSIWYG software like Dreamweaver, in other words. You are welcome to use html or css templates, or borrow code from other sites and tweak it to your own use, so long as you do not make unauthorized use of someone else’s intellectual property.
• You must include an external style sheet and have at least 6 instances in use (IDs, styles, or defining an existing tag) with a range of declarations (they can't all be, say, to change the color or the font).
• The site must include at least three separate html pages and links between those pages.
• The site must include at least two images sized properly for the web.
• The site must include an embedded video that you have created.
• The site must include at least one external link.
• The site must validate using http://validator.w3.org/.
• The site must not have any significant accessibility errors.

What you will do

Your group will to create a website based on your informational campaign. The website must include:

• a logo and clearly defined color scheme and graphic identity
• a video (30 seconds to 1 minute in length)
• written components consistent with your genre of informational campaigns

In order to get to this final product, your group needs to complete the following steps as described below.

Milestone 1: Team contract

Create a team contract based on the Write/Design Assignment on page 86. Sign it, scan it (or take a picture), and each upload the document to Blackboard. ONE CONTRACT per group, but you each submit that one document. This will be the same for everything in this project: 1 project per group, but each group member uploads this particular milestone to Blackboard in order to receive credit.

Milestone 2: Genre analysis report

This milestone is drawn from Writer / Designer. Each member of your group must find two informational campaigns that are related to the idea your group has for the final project. How you break up the work is up to your group, but the FINAL PRODUCT must be a genre analysis report that summarizes the Write/Design Assignment Steps 2-3 on p. 83 of Writer / Designer. IMPORTANT: each group member just needs to find TWO texts, not 8–10 (as listed in the assignment). So in total, your group will have 2 sites X #group members. For example, 4 group members = 8 sites. The genre analysis report must include:

1. A summary of your findings.
   • What are the major genre conventions you found? This list will include both common modes (visual, aural, gestural, spatial, linguistic) and design concepts (emphasis, contrast, color, organization, alignment, proximity)
   • What are the outliers? Why do you think this is the case?
   • What conventions do you think it is important for you to follow as you design your own site?
2. An appendix that includes a link to each of the examples.

To receive credit for this milestone, each person from your group should submit the report in Blackboard (however you will all receive the same grade for the project).

Milestone 3: Storyboard & mockup

Create a website mockup and a video storyboard for your project. Refer to Chapter 6 for help. The mockup should be as professional as you can make it (something like Figure 6.2 will work) and should follow the guidelines on page 95. The storyboard should be readable and follow the guidelines on page 97. Again, each person needs to submit the storyboard to Blackboard in order to receive credit.

Milestone 4: First draft, ready for peer review + brief report

The rough draft website should be usable and should include the video. Other groups will provide you with feedback. Please refer to Chapter 7. I want you to have as many of the bullet points on page 110 done as possible. I realize some may not be possible yet, but do the best you can, realizing you don’t have much time between the peer review and your presentation day. To receive credit, each of you must submit your rough draft by posting a link on Blackboard.

After peer review, write up a 1-page report that details what people liked, what they wanted to see changed, and what your group intends to work on for the final draft. Each of you must submit this report to Blackboard.

Milestone 5: Presentation

The informational website should be complete and as close to its final draft form as possible. You will share it with us in a 10-minute presentation that includes a detailed justification of your rhetorical situation and design strategies.

Details

• You will have 10 minutes for presenting and 5 for questions and answers. Plan accordingly.
• Using a PowerPoint is up to your group. You are not required to, but if it helps organize your presentation then I encourage you to do so.
• You must show us your informational campaign and your video.
• You must discuss your genre analysis, both the process and the results.
• You must justify your design choices using the terminology you’ve learned from the class. (Review “Analyzing Design Choices” in Chapter 2.) Explain the rhetorical situation, and explain how the design strategies you used helped to meet that rhetorical situation (Review “Analyzing a Rhetorical Situation” in Chapter 2).

Grading

You will be graded on the following:

1. The form of your presentation: overall structure, use of time, and professionalism,
2. The use of terminology from the course, not just that you use it, but how well you use it. Is it seamless? Or does it feel forced?
3. Your overall sales(wo)manship. That is, do you sell us on the fact that your campaign is effective and successful?

Milestone 6: Final draft, ready to be graded

You will submit the final draft of your final project in the form of a link to your website. Each group member should post the link to Blackboard by the deadline.

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