{"id":1209,"date":"2023-09-02T17:43:19","date_gmt":"2023-09-02T21:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/?page_id=1209"},"modified":"2023-09-02T17:43:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-02T21:43:22","slug":"establishing-the-who-professional-writing-power-dynamics-amp-improv","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/establishing-the-who-professional-writing-power-dynamics-amp-improv\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cEstablishing the Who\u201d: Professional Writing, Power Dynamics, &amp; Improv"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lauren Esposito<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Assignments &amp; Activities Archive<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:100%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\">\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Esposito-AAA-Contribution.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Esposito-AAA-Contribution.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-a7960e4e-be90-41a4-91c6-41c46bdc6e14\" href=\"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Esposito-AAA-Contribution.pdf\">Esposito-AAA-Contribution<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Esposito-AAA-Contribution.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-a7960e4e-be90-41a4-91c6-41c46bdc6e14\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Activity Description<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">When I started teaching professional writing, I would ask students: \u201cImagine you\u2019re a nurse and you need to explain the signs of a stroke to a young child. Or, imagine you\u2019re a business student writing a \u201chow-to guide\u201d for investors that will be published on a company website. How does your relationship to these audiences affect the way you communicate? How do differences in power influence this relationship?\u201d I wanted to find a way to help students practice these advanced rhetorical skills. I turned to improvisational theater\u2014or improv. This activity is based on an improv exercise called \u201cEstablishing the Who\u201d (Spolin) and it introduces students to the concept of power dynamics. I explain the exercise by identifying core improv skills\u2014listening, observing, and accepting and supporting others\u2019 ideas. Next, students work in pairs. One student (the leader) is assigned a relationship that her partner (the follower) has to figure out. For example, the leader might be playing a parent and the follower is playing a child. Or, the leader is playing a student asking her teacher, the follower, about an assignment. This exercise leads to discussions about communicating with readers with more, less, or the same level of power as a writer, or \u201cwriting up, writing down, writing across\u201d (Lindblom, \u201cPower Dynamics\u201d). It also compels us to discuss how the power we and others hold is rooted in character (ethos), including \u201cracial, gender, ethnic, political, class, age, religious, geographical, and historical identifications\u201d (Ryan 143). Finally, we use this exercise to brainstorm ideas for professional texts students are writing in the course. Whether students are writing a scientific report, a press release, or a public service announcement, or firing off an email, they will need to figure out how to relate to their audience. Examples of discussion and reflection questions are included in the Activity Process section. In the Learning Accommodations section, I also share ways of adapting this activity to an online, synchronous session with students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lauren Esposito Assignments &amp; Activities Archive Activity Description When I started teaching professional writing, I would ask students: \u201cImagine you\u2019re a nurse and you need to explain the signs of a stroke to a young child. Or, imagine you\u2019re a business student writing a \u201chow-to guide\u201d for investors that will be published on a company [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[542,216,432,484],"tags":[14,544,540,22],"class_list":["post-1209","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-activities","category-critical-thought-and-analysis","category-professional-writing","category-rhetorical-situation","tag-audience","tag-improv","tag-reciprocity","tag-research"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1209"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1210,"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1209\/revisions\/1210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parlormultimedia.com\/writingspaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}