LANGUAGE, GENDER, & CULTURE WRITING TASK: Audre Lorde suggests that people may try, at all costs, to accommodate socially imposed constraints, writing,
“What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence?”
Lorde, however, also suggests an alternative to either suffering silently to fit in or rebelling:
She encourages listeners and readers to speak out and use language and action to change the social conditions of our lives.
After you have considered Lorde’s question above and the alternative she subsequently
proposes, a speech that proposes meaningful action in your community. (This may include thinking differently about an issue, acting differently by creating new programs, behaving differently as individuals, or reinforcing norms and behaviors already valued by some parts of the community.)
Read the writing task above carefully, and make sure you can answer the following questions:
• What genre is the prompt asking you to generate? Is it a letter, an essay, a report, an email
or something else?
• What format will this have?
• What are the reader’s expectations for this genre likely to be?
• What is your rhetorical purpose (raise readers’ awareness, persuade people to behave
differently? entertain?)?
• What kind of support would be most appropriate to use?
• How will you use the readings to inform and support your writing?
NEXT:
Decide on an audience to address who can help to improve the situation—your classmates; parents; younger (or older) students; coaches; administrators; teachers; church, city, or community officials.
Compose an argument below that both describes a particular “tyrann[y]” or challenge and propose changes that may improve the lives of those who endure it.
Like Butler, Chira, Brooks, Young, and Lorde, you may use your own or others’ personal experiences (including, if appropriate, those of the five authors in this module), hypothetical situations, and reflections to make your case.
RUBRIC 25 Points (A+)
Claim:
Letter, speech, or public service announcement (PSA) puts forth clear and concise claims. Claim is argumentative.
Analysis:
Letter, speech, or PSA provides ample concrete examples that support its claim.
Organization:
Transitions are employed to help sentences and paragraphs flow smoothly and create fluency for the reader.
Language:
This essay has an established formal style, and objective tone throughout.
