Flaherty 1

Katherine Flaherty

Melanie Gagich

ENG 301

4 April 2019

The Pitch Template

Part I: The Rhetorical Situation
1. What is your topic? Why did you choose that topic?
My topic is multimodality in college composition classrooms. I chose this topic because
multimodal texts are already used in conventional classrooms--they have always been
used in classrooms!--but they might not be given enough attention. As we become more
and more dependent on technology, the classroom needs to adapt and part of this
adaptation needs to be a shift in understanding; WHAT we say matters, but HOW we say
it matters just as much. Plus, multimodal texts are more fun to learn from and to create as
a student!
2. Who is the audience of your final project? How do you know?
The audience of my project is college writing instructors and students. I think the first
hint that this text is intended for academics is the title of the website: “Multimodality in
the Classroom”. I hope the design will convey some subtle allusions to my audience as
well, as I am using a combination of traditional and funky fonts and colors--Times New
Roman in black, Arial in black, and a handwritten style, Architects Daughter in red--to
mimic the look of a marked-up draft. My text will cite and link to scholarly resources, as
well as free digital tools that can be used by teachers/students in their academic projects,
but will use approachable (“snappy”) language so as not to scare anyone away who might
not be totally comfortable with using technology or digital tools in their projects.
3. What is your final project’s purpose? Write its “thesis” or guiding statement.
My goal is to convince writing instructors and students to use multimodality in their
work. The wording of my thesis hasn’t been finalized, but at the moment I’m going with
something super concise: “Writing instructors should use multimodality in the
classroom.”
4. What genre did you choose for your multimodal project? Why?
I am creating an argumentative website which advocates for teaching multimodality in
college comp classes. I want my text to be accessible to any one who might be interested
in the content I have produced for this project. My audience includes individuals who
might not be interested in watching or listening to the information I set forth, so a website
makes the most sense.
5. What are the genre conventions for that type of text? Be specific.
 Flaherty 2

I am creating a website, so conventions I will use to satisfy that will include an About
page, Contact page and other tabs; links to other parts of the site and to external pages; a
theme comprising of a layout for my site, header, fonts, colors, etc.; readable coherent
text to populate my content pages; and images. Since my site is argumentative in nature, I
will need to make sure my sources are cited/linked to as this will give my site credibility;
a “this-and-that” approach to my content which supports my assertion that multimodality
should be taught in college classrooms, plus evidence to persuade my audience. To
satisfy the academic aspect of my project, I will use design elements which are associated
with college writing courses such as red pen mark-up, fonts such as Times New Roman
and Arial, and possibly some stock images which relate to the classroom. Finally, to
properly honor my target audience of college teachers and students, I think a little bit of
cheek will be necessary in the way of jargon, .gifs and memes.

Part II: Design Ideas and Rhetorical Appeals

1. How did you design your project in relation to your topic?
Again, I wanted my project to be as accessible as possible to interested parties. To be
blunt, I feel this might have been boring translated to a podcast or a video. I wanted my
text to be interactive but polished, so as to gain/maintain credibility with my audience,
and I wanted my audience to walk away with new confidence in themselves to create a
similar project.
2. How is the design appropriate to your project’s rhetorical situation?
Since my project is a website, my design will rely heavily on visual, spatial and linguistic
modes of communication. The primary “classroom” I am concerned with is the
composition classroom, so I’ve gone with design conventions that I think best
compliment my purpose.
3. Do you rely on the ethical appeal (or appeal to credibility and character)? Why or why
not?
Absolutely, yes! My audience is used to ingesting credible scholarly material. In order to
be taken seriously, I will need to keep with academic convention and use sources which
are professional and credible.
4. Do you rely on an emotional appeal (or appeal to the audience’s emotions)? Why or why
not?
Yes. I aim to convince my audience to embrace a new concept and sometimes new things
can be scary! I will charm the heck out of my audience with accessible language and
approachable images (I think this is humor!) and encourage them with user-friendly
formatting.
5. Do you rely on the logical appeal (or appeal to logic and reasoning)? Why or why not?
Again: Yes. Multimodality is all around us. I am simply inviting my audience to embrace
this fact in order to improve their teaching and learning skills.
 Flaherty 3

Part III: Game Plan

● What is your timeline?
Friday, April 12 - “paper” completed
Sunday, April 14 - linguistic elements uploaded to website
Wednesday, April 17 - visual elements uploaded to website
Friday, April 19 - links linked/site testing/prepare for Digital Day
● How much do you have left to do?
A good bit. I feel good about my workload.
● How do you plan to finish on time?
I plan to keep calm, stay organized, and stick to the timeline above.
● What outside resources are you planning to use?
ENG 301 reading materials, digital text tools (Jumpchart, Canva, Weebly), I might create
a print out, also lots and lots of coffee.