writing assignment

(2-3 written pages): You will write a short analysis paper on an artifact. This paper does not need to include a literature review or reference page but should include an insightful rhetorical analysis.

Rhetoric is the study of how writers and speakers use words to influence an audience. A rhetorical analysis is an essay that breaks a work into parts and then explains how the parts work together to create a certain effect—whether to persuade, entertain or inform. While considering your artifact, consider how the developers used Aristotle’s Modes of Persuasion, Walter Fisher’s Narrative Paradigm, and or different propaganda techniques to influence the audience.

The artifact should be a printed advertisement (magazine, billboard, or online). You can analyze a public service announcement, a political message, a commercial for a product, or virtually anything in that genre. A television advertisement would provide too much information to develop a satisfactory analysis and therefore should be avoided. If you have any questions, regarding the appropriateness of an artifact, please ask.

This paper should be an insightful criticism that explores an advertisement in detail. Good criticism surprises, it goes beyond description, and tells us something that we do not already know or something that we may have missed.

The paper should include

1. A brief introduction that explains the advertisement 



2. An analysis of the advertisement. This should be the bulk of the paper. 
It should include descriptions when necessary, but focus on how the parts work together to create the advertisement’s persuasive message. Consider how the developer is using different theories of persuasion to change the audience’s behavior.

3. A brief conclusion 


4. Your artifact.

The paper should not be

1. Purely descriptive 


2. Obvious 


3. Boring 


Some tips for this essay content

Narrative criticism

· People learn through the sharing of stories

· What stories are an advertisement telling?

· How do these stories impose order?

Things to consider

· Setting

· Characters

· View point

· Event

· Major events

· Minor events

· Theme

· Audience

Dramatic play elements

· The act

· The agent

· The agency

· The scene

· The purpose

Feminist Criticism

· Examines the power structure (statue quo)

· Looks at the oppression (explicit or implied)

· Note; this is not specifically gendered criticism

· Ethnocentric

· Socio- economic

Considerations

· Rhetorical criticism

· Neo-aristotelian

· Cluster

· Fantasy-theme

· Generic

· Ideological

· Metaphor

· OPTIC strategy for analyzing visuals

· DIDLS strategy for analyzing Tone

· SOAP stone strategy for analyzing writing

· Gender

· Race

· Sex

· Setting

· Message

· Audience

· Perspectives

· Using synonyms

· Ad, Artifact, Photo, Advertisement

· Must be a printed advertisement

· Magazine

· Billboard

· online”still “ photo

· advertising

· A public service announcement

· Not merely descriptive

· Analysis

· Make conclusions about the artifact

Things to include

· introduction

· Explain the advertisement

· Who produced it

· Year

· Brief description

· analysis

· bulk of paper

· Include descriptions when necessary, but focus on how the parts work together to create the advertisement’s message

· conclusion

· Brief conclusion

· Overall thoughts about the artifact