Rhetorical Situation

Rhetorical Situation: In a memo addressed to me, write annotations of two of the assigned
articles on social media regulation you intend to use in your column to support your thesis. You
may summarize any of the articles in the “Social Media-Related Readings” folder located in the
Sequence 3: Social Media Regulation Argument” area in our Blackboard course page.
Note: If you have located a source elsewhere you would like to use in your argument, be sure
you get my approval first. You may do so my emailing me the source ahead of the LSA3
deadline.
Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to encourage you to closely read secondary sources
that will help you develop your thesis and then to consider how you might repurpose relevant
parts of the sources within your column. Writing annotations can help you take inventory of
sources you’ve read and what information they provide. You may not use content-generating
A.I. to assist you with the annotations. The idea is to read the articles yourself and be able to
articulate their key points and consider how you might integrate parts of them into your own
writing.
Heading: Include a memo heading that looks like the following:
MEMORANDUM (type this word at the top of the document in all capital letters)
DATE: (Write the date the memo is due after the word “Date:”)
TO: (Write my name after the word “TO:”)
FROM: (Write your first and last name after the word “FROM:”)
SUBJECT: (Type the memo’s subject—which is akin to a title—after the word
“SUBJECT:”)
Working Thesis Statement: Beneath the memo’s heading, identify what your general argument
or thesis in the column might be.
Section 1: Write an annotation (different from the one in Section 2) that contains the following:
• The source’s author and title,
• A concise summary of the source, and
• Commentary on how you might use the source in the column: to provide a definition, to
borrow another writer’s point or line of reasoning, to present an example, or to cite
statistics or a study. Approximately 300-350 words (depends on the length of the
original source)
Section 2: Write an annotation (different from the one in Section 1) that contains the following:
• The source’s author and title,
• A concise summary of the source, and
• Commentary on how you might use the source in the column: to provide a definition, to
borrow another writer’s point or line of reasoning, to present an example, or to cite
statistics or a study. Approximately 300-350 words (depends on the length of the
original source)
Summary Content: The summary portion of each annotation needs to
✓ capture the source’s main idea and key supporting points,
✓ omit your opinion about the source,
✓ include transitions and attributive tags to link sentences within the summary, and
✓ properly quote any wording or phrasing lifted directly from the source.
Memo Format:
• Format the heading like the one demonstrated in the “Heading” section above.
• Make sure the memo is left aligned (no paragraph indentions).
• Use single spacing within each section, but double space between each section.
• Type the document in a 12pt, professional-looking, readable font (Arial, Cambria,
Calibri, or Times New Roman).