Visual Analysis
Unit 1 Essay: Visual Analysis (200 points)
Important Dates: Final Draft on Turnitin: Sunday, 2/7 by 11:59PM
**Want feedback on your rough draft/essay plan? Send me your rough draft and the specific questions you have about it via email by Thursday, 2/4**
Length and Format: 500-750 words, double spaced; Standard MLA format. Your thesis and each paragraph’s topic sentence should be highlighted in your final draft.
● Don’t meet length requirements? 20 points off your final draft. ● Don’t meet formatting requirements? 20 points off your final draft.
Examples to read for inspiration:
● The Golden Arches Go Green Constraints: Third Person POV; Inclusion of URL for the selected advertisement or image of print ad Grading: Visual Analysis Rubric Guidelines: The goal of a rhetorical visual analysis is not to analyze what a writer is arguing about concerning an issue, but to analyze how the writer and creator of the visual is presenting the argument. You’ll do this by analyzing the use of rhetorical strategies. Using a tv commercial, you will provide an objective analysis of the strengths and weaknesses in the creator’s use of ethos, logos, and pathos within his or her textual and visual argument(s). You can peruse this collection of commercials to get started, or choose one on your own. Your rhetorical visual analysis of the commercial will consist mainly of your analysis of the three rhetorical appeals: ethos, and logos, pathos.
This assignment prompts you to identify the strategies that a particular written + visual argument employs. One of the reasons this is useful is that it requires you to understand not just what writers are saying, but also the purposes and motivations behind their arguments. Also, as you get more comfortable identifying the strategies other writers employ, you will be able to utilize these strategies effectively in your own writing. Essay’s Organization: Introduction: You will want to explore and examine the specific message the visual puts forth. Describe what you see in your visual with great detail. Remember, this is focusing on what you see in the image. After the description, your thesis should be a clear indication of what message is conveyed by the visual. Ethos deals primarily with credibility. You will want to examine the creator’s reputation, authority, and/or expertise. These factors, as well as the argument being made, will either improve or detract from the creator’s credibility.
Logos is concerned with the logic of the creator’s argument. In considering the creator’s use of logos, you will analyze issues such as the quality and quantity of supporting evidence. You may also want to consider any bias that the creator might have toward the subject and the effect of that bias upon the argument being presented. Is the writer’s reasoning sound? Do you identify any logical fallacies? In short, you will want to address any weaknesses and/or strengths in the logic of the argument. Pathos deals with emotion. You should identify any attempts on the part of the creator to evoke a particular emotion from the audience. Additionally, you will want to consider whether or not appealing to emotion is an effective strategy for the argument being discussed. Conclusion: Restate your thesis and the big picture of what message the visual presents. Given the visual’s use of ethos, logos, and pathos you’ve discussed in the body of the paper, is this message effective? Conclude your thoughts.
Checklist
Before you turn in your essay, make sure you can answer “yes” to the following questions. ▢ Does your essay have a specific title (other than Essay 1)? ▢ Does your introduction capture the reader’s attention? ▢ Do you include a well-constructed thesis statement at the end of the introduction? ▢ Does each body paragraph contain a topic sentence? ▢ Does each body paragraph contain specific evidence from the image to support your opinion? ▢ Does each body paragraph contain a reason (i.e. commentary) for your opinion? ▢ Does your conclusion reiterate your overall claim about the image? ▢ Does your concluding paragraph bring your essay to a satisfying close? ▢ Does each paragraph transition from one to the next? ▢ Is the essay written in third person? ▢ Is your essay formatted correctly? (See MLA information on eCampus) ▢ Is your essay free of grammatical errors? ▢ Is essay at least 500 words? ▢ Does your final draft contain only the essay and the visual you analyzed?