Some Select Comments About A Capstone Unit

I used a capstone unit. The focus of unit was discourse conventions, and I had the students individually research, document, and present examples of discourse conventions they had identified for their own field of study. Additionally, I had them present this information in a website they created with minimal instruction on website design. Good results!

I structure my 145.13 course as a course in professionalizing students as business writers, but our focus throughout the semester is on analyzing business audiences and writing rhetorically-effective documents (visually effective as well as effective in content). The course begins with students conducting professional job searches and writing resumes and cover letters tailored to the employer as an audience. The units progress in terms of how they require students to analyze audiences and the course concludes with two capstone assignments.

For their capstone assignments, the students work in groups of three to create a product that they must them promote to an audience. They must first understand the audience for their product and how best to market and sell that product to this audience. Acting as marketing consultants, they create a presentation demonstrating their knowledge of the product and its audience and create a visual way of marketing the product, either with flyers, a website, PowerPoint presentations, television commercials, etc. These two projects serve as the capstone assignments for the class and preclude students’ portfolio revisions and introductions.