The Case Study Project: Building A Community/workplace Writing Opportunity For Students (3)

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Phase Three: Organizing Students into Writing Teams
During Phase Three of the Case Study Project, we organize students in writing teams of four to five students, distributing students who are technologically savvy across the writing groups. We ask each team to create a name to identify itself on all documents that the team produces. The names that Katherine's students used when creating a poster for the Upward Bound (UB) Program were Breitling Replica Watches The Fantastic Flyers, The Mavericks, The High Flyers, and Take It to the Max, and students in Michelle's class chose names such as Writer's Block, Ink Blots Inc., Writer's Cramp, and Three's Company. Students also create a logo to provide a graphic representation of their writing team's name. This initial activity helps the students create a group identity and begin collaborating on a low-stakes activity.

Phase Four: Meeting the Client

After students develop the team name and logo, we ask the client—or the representative from the organization—to talk with the ...
... students about the organization's mission and the document to be revised. Students interview the client, asking specific questions about the intended audience for this document, the language and design features that need to be included on the document, and additional questions about the organization to help each team develop an informed understanding of the organization's needs. When Katherine's students worked with the UB Program, for example, the clients wanted the writing teams to develop a new recruiting poster to be displayed in New Hampshire high schools; the primary audience for the poster was high school sophomores and juniors who would be eligible for the UB Program. Because Upward Bound is a federally funded program, the director had specific parameters that the writing teams needed to follow, especially the use of specific colors, a UB logo and slogan, and information that had to appear on the poster.
While we prefer that students have the opportunity to interview the client to find out more about the program and the writing task they have been given, this is not always possible, as we have noted earlier. For example, because the UB staff could not attend the class meeting prior to the be-ginning of this project, they provided a wealth of artifacts for students to look through, including a cache of photos from the previous summer's classes, brochures, addresses for the local and federal UB websites, and sample posters from previous years. The students were also invited to email the director if they had questions about the organization or the document they were creating. Each writing team then drew on these materials, first offering individual observations in a memo to their team members about the organization's mission and Tag Heuer Replica activities. Even if interviewing the client is an option, collecting and analyzing documents can be especially helpful as students seek to understand how the organization designs and uses public documents and what role each document plays within the organization's structure. The following is a sample prompt that we give to students to help them get started with this phase of the project:

Evaluate the websites, brochures, flyers, and/or photos that you received in class from our client. Individually, jot down your observations about these documents. Here are some questions to guide you:
1. What is your overall impression of the organization and its purpose/mission?
2. What are some key words and phrases that the organization uses?
3. How readable and legible are these documents?
4. What are the visuals that are included in these documents (logos, graphics, photos) and how well are they used?
5. What do these visuals tell you about the organization and its purpose/mission?
6. Who do you think are the audiences for these documents and why?