Subject: Infographic and Explanatory Memo (75 point major document)
Context
Your job has decided to hold a day-long workshop on career planning for high school students. As part of that workshop, students will have a chance to view various posters and infographics describing particular professions and professional organizations. The goal is to inform students about either a particular profession or the professional organizations which support people in those professions. In these types of sessions, the audience rarely has time to closely read each individual infographic. Instead, they scan them while walking by, stopping only when they find a particular infographic interesting.
Your department chair knows about the work you’ve been doing on the recruitment committee, and they have decided you would be the perfect person to create an infographic for this event.
Task
Using the material in either your employer expectations report or your professional organizations memo, create an infographic or poster in response to the situation described above.
In addition, you will need to create a memo, targeting your department chair, that explains and justifies the choices you made constructing the infographic. Specifically, the memo will need to:
• describe your understanding of the rhetorical situation in which you are working (i.e. your purpose, audience, and context). In this case, “purpose” means what you want your infographic to accomplish.
• explain how the choices you made in the infographic are appropriate given the features of that situation
• discuss how the change in medium affected those choices (in other words, what did the visual focus of the infographic allow you to do or keep you from doing to meet your goals)
• evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your infographic in terms of its effectiveness in the rhetorical situation
The memo should be approximately 500 words long, though you can write more if you need more information to support your claims.
Tools
You will create your infographic in one of two ways. One option is Piktochart, an online program for creating infographics. You will need to create a free account to use Piktochart. The other is PowerPoint, which will allow you to design it like a research poster. I will provide how-to materials on both of these options.
Hints and Guidelines
• You have already generated much of the content you will need for this assignment by completing the earlier tasks. However, you should feel free to build on that material and conduct additional research if you feel it’s necessary to meet your goals.
• This infographic will require you to do more than just dump the content of your earlier document into a Piktochart template or PowerPoint slide. You will have to consider principles of visual design and the affordances of this medium (what is allows you to do well and what it keeps you from doing).
• Infographics typically convey one major message, one that the creator can express orally in two minutes. We will do a couple of activities in class designed to help you refine your message.
• We will spend some class time working on this project. That said, you will also need to allot additional time outside of class.
• As you work on your infographic, you should write down the choices you make and why you made them. You will need this information to prepare the explanatory material. Essentially, you should work on both parts in parallel.
• I am not expecting you to prepare a professional quality infographic. However, I do expect you to create a solid work that demonstrates your understanding of the rhetorical concepts we have worked on this semester.
RUBRIC
Criteria Exceptional Above Average Average Below Average Unsatisfactory
Development of content in infographic 10 8.43 7.43 6.43 5.89
Readability of infographic 10 8.43 7.43 6.43 5.89
Layout of infographic 15 12.68 11.18 9.68 8.85
Color/Images used in infographic 5 4.25 3.74 3.24 2.96
Sentence level concerns in infographic 5 4.25 3.74 3.24 2.96
Documentation in infographic 5 4.25 3.74 3.24 2.96
Development of explanatory memo 10 8.43 7.43 6.43 5.89
Organization of explanatory memo 10 8.43 7.43 6.43 5.89
Sentence-level issues and design of explanatory memo 5 4.25 3.74 3.24 2.96
RUBRIC DESCRIPTORS
Development of content in infographic:
• Score of Exceptional: All major points are developed with specific, relevant information that clarifies, extends, and/or illustrates the reasons supporting the points.
• Score of Average: Points are not developed consistently, causing the reader to want more information about some points. Ideas, in places, are unclear or made up of vague or commonplace generalizations. Some examples may not be appropriate.
• Score of Unsatisfactory: Points are stated without any development. Most examples are inappropriate for the audience.
Readability of infographic:
• Score of Exceptional: All font choices are easy to read and sizes vary appropriately for differentiating headings and body text. Textual highlighting enhances readability.
• Score of Average: Some font sizes and choices limit readability.
• Score of Unsatisfactory: The text is extremely hard to read due to too much text, small font size, and/or confusing formatting choices.
Layout of infographic (Note: Much of this language is taken a rubric from the University of Wisconsin-Stout):
• Score of Exceptional: Layout is visually pleasing and contributes to the overall message with appropriate use of headings and white space. Background supplements message.
• Score of Average: The layout shows some structure, but some parts of the infographic appear cluttered and busy. Alternatively, the poster may contain some distracting white space. Background neither supplements nor distracts from the message.
• Score of Unsatisfactory: The infographic is cluttered and hard to read due to inconsistent spacing, headings, and/or white space
Color/Images used in infographic:
• Score of Exceptional: Most or all color and image choices assist in presenting the content. All are appropriate for the purpose and audience.
• Score of Average: Some of the colors and images seem unconnected to the content. Some are inappropriate for the purpose and audience.
• Score of Unsatisfactory: The colors and/or images are unrelated to the content. They distract from the audience’s understanding.
Sentence level concerns in infographic (including both style and grammar):
• Score of Exceptional: Few or no grammatical, mechanical, and/or spelling errors exist, and those that appear are minor or reflect obscure rules. Those errors present do not detract from the text’s central focus and from the smooth delivery of the writer’s ideas. (Note: fragments are appropriate in bulleted lists on infographics, though they may not be appropriate in other places.)
• Score of Average: grammatical, mechanical, and spelling errors begin to interfere with understanding the text’s meaning. Patterns of error may exist.
• Score of Unsatisfactory: numerous distracting grammatical, mechanical, and spelling errors make understanding the text’s meaning difficult or impossible.
Documentation in infographic
• Score of Exceptional: Few or no citation errors.
• Score of Average: Some citation errors, such as missing citations for outside sources or images used without attribution.
• Score of Unsatisfactory: Multiple, serious citation errors, such as no images attributed or no ideas obviously from outside sources uncited.
Development of explanatory memo
• Score of Exceptional: All major claims are developed with specific, relevant details that clarify, extend, and/or illustrate the claims.
• Score of Average: Claims are not developed consistently, causing the reader to want more information. Ideas, in places, are unclear or made up of vague statements.
• Score of Unsatisfactory: Claims are stated without any supporting details.
Organization of explanatory memo
• Score of Exceptional: The document uses a logical order for both paragraphs and the overall piece that imparts a feeling of wholeness and skilled construction.
• Score of Average: The document’s structure breaks down in some places, but holds together overall. At the paragraph level, some sentences are out of place. Some transitions between sentences are abrupt or inappropriate for the type of relationships implied among the paragraph’s ideas.
• Score of Unsatisfactory: The document uses an unclear or confusing overall organization. The paragraphs do not seem to be focused around a main idea; sentences are disorganized, with little or no effective use of transitional material.
Sentence level issues and design of explanatory memo
• Score of Exceptional: Few or no grammatical, mechanical, and/or spelling errors exist, and those that appear are minor or reflect obscure rules. Those errors present do not detract from the text’s central focus and from the smooth delivery of the writer’s ideas. The style is consistently appropriate for a professional context. The document follows all the conventions of memo format.
• Score of Average: Grammatical, mechanical, and spelling errors begin to interfere with understanding the text’s meaning. Patterns of status-marking error may exist (ex. sentence boundaries, verb endings). The style is somewhat appropriate for a professional context, but it contains some inappropriate choices. The document follows some, but not all, of the conventions of memo format.
• Score of Unsatisfactory: Numerous distracting grammatical, mechanical, and/or spelling errors make understanding the text’s meaning difficult or impossible. The style is inappropriate for a professional context. The document is not in memo format.