"I often make the mistake of thinking that something that is obvious to me is obvious to everyone else." -Adichie
YOUR TURN
Having a solid plan is the first step in any advocacy campaign. It's important for us to clearly define our problem, our audience, and what we want people to do to make change. Before you conferences during Week 15, complete a project proposal by answering the questions below in a blog post of 600-800 words:
Introduction: Summarize the specific problem you want to address in your advocacy campaign work this assignment:
What is the specific problem you want to address? This should be fairly narrow. For example, “sleep deprivation” is too broad, “College students are facing health problems due to stress and sleep deprivation” is much narrower and far more specific.
What is the scope of your project? Scope defines the limits of the project, what is included and what is excluded, and why.
Briefly, what actions are you proposing, and who will your audience be? In other words, what will be the major message and target audience of your advocacy campaign?
Background: this will be the longest section of your proposal and it will be based on your research:
Explain your problem in detail and show the impact of the issue. The purpose of this section is not only to provide background information, but also to make an argument that there is a problem that needs addressing. Why is your problem important to address? What is at stake?
What solutions have been tried? Are their already programs in place related to your topic? Have they been effective? Why or why not? How will your proposed action fit in?
Audience
Define the audience(s) for your advocacy campaign: Who will you be trying to reach? Since you will be producing more than one text, you may have multiple audiences, or just one. Explain in detail who your audience is and why they will (or should) care about your issue. As we will discuss in class, it is often helpful to conceptualize your audience as “people who…”
What do you want your audience(s) to do? Why are they the best audience(s) to take effective action? What action(s) are you proposing and why?
TIPS/TRICKS/VARIATIONS
This is one of our more straightforward assignments. Save your creativity for the wider project.
You can answer the questions in bullet points if that's an easier way of working through them.