Project 3 Outline

In this blog post, I will be writing a general outline for my argument within the article genre for Project 3. For my outline, I have also created a cluster on coggle; to access my cluster, please click "HERE".

Stansbury, Addie (2015) "Project 3 Outline Cluster" via Coggle

Introduction (Frame the Consequences): 

• Start out by introducing the problem(s) - (Rolling Stone and their failure to write an ethical article and complete sufficient research on Jackie's alleged UVA gang-rape... provide sufficient background information/context that will lead into the purpose of your article)
• Frame the consequences
• Long term - (The specific journalistic failures I will mention could have/have had lasting effects on journalism/the reporting of sexual assaults, could prevent women from coming forward about their assaults, reinforces stereotype that women tend to fabricate rape/sexual assault stories for attention, leaving one of our country's best universities with a tarnished reputation, reinforcing the stereotypes of fraternities/Greek Life on college campuses, tarnishing the reputation/credibility of Rolling Stone, etc.)
• Short term - (Caused a ruckus/various protests on the UVA campus, etc.)

Body (building argument):

• Major Supporting Arguments (pretty much the consequences listed above)
• Rolling Stone didn't follow SPJ's Code of Ethics for professional journalism and therefore shouldn't be trusted as a source for ethical/truthful reports (hurt their own reputation as an organization)
• Sexual assault victims may fear coming forward about their attacks because they fear people won't believe them
• Journalists may feel resistance to report on stories concerning rape/sexual assault (this has a major effect on the importance of bringing awareness to the issue of sexual assault not only on college campuses but within our society)
• The failure of journalism's reinforcement of the stereotype against women that they fabricate sexual assault stories for attention
• Leaves one of the country's best universities with a tarnished reputation 
• Reinforces the stereotypes of fraternities/Greek Life on college campus in relation to rape and other sexual assault
• Major Criticisms
• People will argue that Rolling Stone could not have prevented the fact that Jackie lied about her attack 
• People will argue that whether or not Jackie told the truth, the story she told Rolling Stone was an awakening story that was meant to bring attention to the seriousness of rape on college campuses
• People will argue that Jackie could still have been attacked that night, even if she fabricated many details
• Greek Life/fraternities on college campuses are known to be one of the most dangerous and common places for sexual assault to occur 
• Topic Sentences for Rebuttal Points
• Rolling Stone could have prevented the loss of their credibility by following SPJ's Code of Ethics for professional journalism and not reporting on an alleged gang-rape that had no supporting evidence or argument from the alleged attackers in the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at UVA.
• Whether or not the highly detailed "article" that Rolling Stone published about Jackie's alleged attack was meant to bring awareness to sexual assault on college campuses as well as within university Greek Life, Sabrina Erdely and her team at Rolling Stone failed to complete proper investigation and published a story that was extremely fabricated and had various severe consequences that effected various groups of people. 
• There is no evidence that any attack occurred on the night Jackie stated she was gang-raped by multiple men at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. Rolling Stone should have never reported on an attack this extreme without evidence or any knowledge of it's accuracy. 
• Greek Life/fraternities on college campuses have been haunted by the stereotypes of being a club for partiers, kids who aren't serious about school/education, and a common place where sexual assault occurs. False stories like the retracted UVA article by Rolling Stone only reinforce these false stereotypes.  
• Evidence
• "Phi Kappa Psi suspended the activities of its UVA chapter the day after the article was published, and its national leadership said they would cooperate in the police investigation and launch their own internal investigation." - NYmag
• "Phi Kappa Psi says in a statement that it "did not have a date function or a social event during the weekend of September 28th, 2012," and none of its members worked at the pool during that time. While the article suggests the gang rape was part of an initiation ritual, the fraternity does not have pledges in the fall." - NYmag
• "The University of Virginia's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity is considering legal action, after a police investigation found there was no evidence to support a Rolling Stone article's allegations that a student was gang-raped at that frat house." - Business Insider
• "Jackie's friends tell the Post that they're beginning to doubt her account. They say in the past week, she identified one of her alleged attackers for the first time. They discovered the student belongs to a different fraternity, and no one by that name was ever in Phi Kappa Psi." - NYmag
• Develop a Map of Your Argument
• Coggle

Concluding Strategies (Call to Action/Negative Consequences):

• These two concluding strategies best fit my argument because I will be mentioning the failures and negative consequences of Rolling Stone's UVA rape retracted article; so, the Negative Consequences strategy would make sense. However, not only will I be mentioning and explaining the negative consequences, I also want to write a Call to Action about how journalists can prevent these journalistic failures and negative consequences from occurring again (by following SPJ's Code of Ethics for professional journalism). 

Reflection:

After reading and commenting on Jenny and Rachel's outlines as well as reading their considering visual elements posts (Jenny's & Rachel's), I found that our outlines were very similar. Obviously that will be true for most people, however, because we were assigned specific questions and topics to focus on. Additionally, I noticed from their posts on visual elements that because we are all working in similar genres, the format and other visual elements of our projects will be similar. Overall, it seems like all three of us have a good foundation to move into drafting our projects.