TASK: Create informative content, including infographics and copywriting, for the ‘About Us’ page for a local makerspace
Over the course of the Fall 2021 semester, the students in Britta Petrich’s English 015 class conducted research, employed rhetorical strategies, and experimented with visual design in order to create thoughtful additions and revisions to the ‘About Us’ page of The Rivet, a makerspace located nearby the University Park campus.
Potential Impact for this Commissioned Assignment
Makerspaces are collaborative workspaces where community members can create and learn about different crafts and trades (with varying levels of technical skill) together. In that same spirit of community collaboration, The Rivet, a makerspace that opened in State College in January of 2020, has commissioned English 015 students from The Pennsylvania State University to help develop content for their website, particularly their ‘About Us’ page.
To quote the copywriting of one of Petrich’s students, makerspaces “foster community and creativity in a shared space.” As such, makerspaces like The Rivet are a natural collaboration for the Public Writing Initiative, allowing students to study and practice writing skills not only in a technical and perhaps unexpected field but in the context of public life and community organization.
Creating Content for the Website
This commissioned assignment was introduced to students and carried out in three phases, helping students to fully understand the context of the project and create effective and functional site content.
In the Exploration Phase, students individually researched makerspaces and the movement. Each student created an Annotated Bibliography with three or more articles about makerspaces to gain understanding. They shared their work during a class discussion. From there, students researched websites to find out about what other makerspaces across the country are doing. Students studied ‘About Us’ pages to get a sense of what content should be included on The Rivet’s ‘About Us’ page. Students then went to the Media Commons in Pattee Library to learn about Infographics as a visual design element for websites. Students each created one infographic and reviewed their work on the overhead in class talking about strong elements of each and gathering ideas.
In the Planning Phase, students decided on what kind of copy and visuals they wanted to include. They wrote up paragraphs using rhetorical appeals to describe The Rivet in State College, touching on the history of the movement, and offering practical information, such as hours and location, that should go on an ‘About Us’ page. Creativity came into play when they planned what would go on Infographics and how they could present work that fell in line with The Rivet’s mission statement. In teams, students whittled down content and ideas from the Exploration Phase to showcase key areas they thought could be useful to include on a website.
In the Deliverable Phase, students presented their work. Part of that phase included organizing their work and writing Cover Letters to The Rivet that described their decisions and how they thought The Rivet could use their work to promote themselves as a local makerspace within the community. 
These examples from students in Petrich’s class demonstrate the developmental process of the commissioned assignment. There is a draft of a potential layout design for the ‘About Us’ page as well as two completed infographics for the website. Other infographics and copywriting from the students explored the history of makerspaces and the multiple meanings of the word “rivet” to illuminate The Rivet’s mission and ethos.
As an exercise in situated learning, Petrich’s English 015 students had the opportunity to exercise critical thinking, rhetorical strategies, research, and multimodal creation—all widely applicable skills—within the context of the local community.