1 UWP 101: Fall 2016, Professor Liz Constable Major Assignment #3: Documenting People and Places Beekeepers in Suffolk County The rhetorical situation for your essay: Purpose: To create an informative and insightful profile of either a group of people whose lives and experiences we might otherwise not witness or understand, and/or a profile of a place and the people who inhabit it, and/or an event and the perspectives of different people on the event. Audience: Your audience for this essay is readers like yourselves: college-educated readers who are curious about everyday experiences of ordinary people, and want to learn about amateur archers, or the goings on behind the scenes at a local eatery; about a day in the life of a team of firefighters, the American River Parkway, or people’s responses to the turkey population in Davis. Role: Your role as a writer is to recreate and describe these people’s experiences, not only the external world of your subjects but also your subjects’ internal reactions to events. Context: You are asked to profile a group of people and/or a place, and/or an event and people’s responses in such a way as to reveal aspects of your subject that would otherwise remain unknown and invisible to your readers. 2 Topic: Despite the quantity of information online and in print, most of us have very little idea what other people do for a living, or how some of the everyday objects we buy are produced, distributed, sold or disposed of. Structuring a creative non-fiction essay around a day in the life of volunteers at the raptor center, or the janitorial staff on campus, or the process by which a surfboard is designed and manufactures, affords insights into lives and experiences we might otherwise never learn about or understand. Your aim is to document your subjects’ lives as fully as you can, and as faithfully as you can. Your report needs to be authoritative, based on facts and evidence and first- hand observation. And it needs to be revealing—you need to dig beyond the surface to discover truths that might not be obvious to the casual bystander. The subject of your informative profile is open, but you need to select a group, or a place, or an event where you can conduct interviews yourself (primary sources) in addition to undertaking secondary research. Consider focusing on one of the following:  an intriguing local place. This could be a public place, such as a government or campus building, or possibly a store or other place of business.  an organization or recognized group of people—a campus club, a research lab, a local business.  a significant recent event. If you choose an event, you must be able to rely on your own personal observations of the event and you must be able to interview other people who were there. Due Dates and Length: Length: approx. 2000–2500 words (around 8–10 pages) M Nov 19 First Stage of Assignment #3 Due in class (2 ...

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UWP 101: Fall 2016, Professor Liz Constable
Major Assignment #3: Documenting People and Places
Beekeepers in Suffolk County
The rhetorical situation for your essay:
Purpose: To create an informative and insightful profile of
either a group of people whose lives
and experiences we might otherwise not witness or understand,
and/or a profile of a place and
the people who inhabit it, and/or an event and the perspectives
of different people on the event.
Audience: Your audience for this essay is readers like
yourselves: college-educated readers who
are curious about everyday experiences of ordinary people, and
want to learn about amateur
archers, or the goings on behind the scenes at a local eatery;
about a day in the life of a team of
firefighters, the American River Parkway, or people’s responses
to the turkey population in Davis.
Role: Your role as a writer is to recreate and describe these
people’s experiences, not only the

2. external world of your subjects but also your subjects’ internal
reactions to events.
Context: You are asked to profile a group of people and/or a
place, and/or an event and people’s
responses in such a way as to reveal aspects of your subject that
would otherwise remain
unknown and invisible to your readers.
2
Topic:
Despite the quantity of information online and in print, most of
us have very little idea what other
people do for a living, or how some of the everyday objects we
buy are produced, distributed, sold
or disposed of. Structuring a creative non-fiction essay around a
day in the life of volunteers at the
raptor center, or the janitorial staff on campus, or the process
by which a surfboard is designed
and manufactures, affords insights into lives and experiences we
might otherwise never learn
about or understand. Your aim is to document your subjects’
lives as fully as you can, and as
faithfully as you can. Your report needs to be authoritative,
based on facts and evidence and first-
hand observation. And it needs to be revealing—you need to dig
beyond the surface to discover
truths that might not be obvious to the casual bystander.
The subject of your informative profile is open, but you need to

3. select a group, or a place, or an
event where you can conduct interviews yourself (primary
sources) in addition to undertaking
secondary research. Consider focusing on one of the following:
as a government or campus
building, or possibly a store or other place of business.
—a campus
club, a research lab, a local
business.
be able to rely on your own
personal observations of the event and you must be able to
interview other people who were
there.
Due Dates and Length:
Length: approx. 2000–2500 words (around 8–10 pages)
M Nov 19 First Stage of Assignment #3 Due in class (2 hard
copies) and uploaded to SmartSite
by 4:40 p.m. Your First Stage Draft is more of a progress report
than a “first draft”
of your Profile. You need to include the following elements in
your First Stage Draft:
● First, explain the subject of your profile, why you have made
this choice, what you
already know about it. Then, describe how you plan to go about

4. gathering both
primary and secondary material. Indicate the tone you think
you’ll adopt in writing
this profile, and explain what you hope your readers will learn
from your profile.
● Describe people you have already interviewed or spoken with,
observations you
have made, photographs you have taken, documents you have
collected, etc. What
problems have you encountered so far? How do you plan to
solve those problems?
What research do you have left to do?
● Include an Annotated Bibliography. List (in correct
bibliographical format)
sources you have found, or plan to use, for this profile, with
brief description of
each, explaining what it contributes (or what you think it will
contribute) to your
research. Describe the most interesting results you’ve found so
far,
3
W Nov 30 Complete First Draft Due (including Works Cited or
References list). Submit to
Smartsite and bring 2 hard copies for the draft workshop. For
full points, you must
submit your draft to Smartsite Assignments before class, bring
TWO hard copies of
your draft to class, AND participate fully in the draft workshop
in class, writing
substantial critiques of two of your classmates’ drafts.

5. Fri Dec 9 Final Draft of Assignment #2 Due on SmartSite by
11:55 p.m
Research Process:
Begin with field research based on primary sources: observe,
talk to people, take notes on what
you see and hear. You will then do background research to
gather facts, statistics,
historical/geographical information. And finally, as you work
with both primary and secondary
sources, you’ll identify the significance of your profile to
ongoing debates and discussions of an
issue of significance to your readers: social, cultural,
environmental, political, educational,
Sources:
Successful essays will engage with and integrate at least six
secondary sources, and you should
make sure that among your sources you include the following
required sources:
1. Evidence from at least two – three primary sources
(interviews, observations, official
documents)
2. Graphics/Photographs: you must include at least one visual
source. This must be either
your own photograph, or graphic art, or a graph or chart.
3. At least two scholarly sources (journal articles, chapters from
scholarly books) relevant to
your topic

6. 4. A journalistic source (newspaper or magazine article, print or
online)
You must do enough research to write an authoritative, upper-
division research paper on the topic
you choose.
Documentation:
Integrate your source material smoothly, using signal phrases
(“according to…” etc.), and
thoroughly documenting your sources using either MLA or APA
documentation style. Rely on a
reputable reference guide to get the details of documentation
correct. The Purdue Online Writing
Lab is a good source:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/