The Context Comparison
provides students with the opportunity to foreground the choices
they will make in the revision of their arguments for an academic
audience. You can make the Context Comparison "bigger"
or "smaller" according to what you feel your students
need more time or work on.
Context Comparison
Part 1
Divide a sheet of paper
in half. Label the left column "Academic Context"
and label the right column "Public Context." Fill
in the appropriate answer to each of the following for both contexts:
Who is the audience?
(Be specific here: what is the average age of the audience
members? What is their economic status, social class, gender,
education, etc.?)
What is your purpose
for writing?
What is your claim?
What are the limitations
of the context?
List the reasons you
can successfully develop within your limitations.
List the evidence you
can successfully use to support your reasons.
What tone and style
are you using for the argument?
Part 2
Think carefully about
the audience of your publication/public context argument and answer
the following:
What do the readers
of your publication already know about your issue? What
will they want or need to know additionally?
Describe the general
attitude or viewpoint of the audience toward your issue.
What social and cultural
factors might shape the way your audience feels about the issue?
Part 3
In this section, you
should go beyond the answers to Part 1 and 2, and, in sentence
form, explain the revision choices you will make when you change
your argument from meeting the expectations of an academic context
to meeting the expectations of your public context.
What are the most significant
differences between the audiences for which you are writing?
How are the audience's
views or attitude toward the issue similar or different to your
own position as reflected in your clam?
To what extent has your
purpose for writing changed between contexts?
How will you revise
your claim for each context according to the differing purposes?
To what extent will
you revise your reasons? Your evidence?
How will your tone or
style change?
What social and cultural
factors might account for the similarities and differences between
the two contexts for which you are writing?
What are the two most
important things you will need to keep in mind about the expectations
and requirements of your new context?
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