Introduction

This week you will be composing a more traditional piece of response writing in the form of a letter to the editor.

Assignment

Choose one of the pre-existing texts below torespondto in a text drafted for traditional media. You can respond to the same text that you responded to in the New Media Response assignment, but youmustdraft a response from scratch. This week, draft a Letter to the Editor of the publication that originally printed your chosen article in which you respond. In other words, if your chosen text originally appeared in theLA Times, then you are writing a letter to the Editor of theLA Times.

Review "Writing Letters to the Editor" in this week's Module Readings and Resources. Also, read my announcement regarding this assignment.

IMPORTANT: Your letter should not be addressed to the journalist who wrote the article. Address it to the editor of the publication. If you don't know the name, use this salutation: Dear Editor

• "I'm an Influencer and I think Social Media is Toxic,"by Lydia Keating forSlate(opens in new window): Frame your response around whether or not you agree with Keating's take. Can you understand why she feels the way she feels? Can you understand why she continues to do the work even while feeling this way? How do you feel about the toxicity of social media in general?

Grading Criteria

• Youmustrefer to your chosen text in your response. You'rerespondingto it. Choose a handful of specific points made in the original text you wish to respond to. Quote the original and offer your take.
• Think about how texts written for traditional media acknowledge sources. Youmustacknowledge any sources you use in your writing according to expectations for traditional media. This includes your chosen text and any other source material you incorporate.
• Submissions should be around 250 words and in the format appropriate to your chosen genre.