First Draft

Essay #2: Visual Analysis

(3-4 double spaced pages)

First Draft Due: Sunday 10/6

Final Draft Due: Sunday 10/13

You will search for and select 3 images from the internet or in print to practice analyzing in class, and ultimately selecting one to write a formal essay about. You could choose an advertisement, a photograph, a painting, a poster, or a drawing. It can be from any time period.

*It is a very good idea at this point to have a way of saving and easily accessing files (USB drive, dropbox, Google drive etc….) as we will be working with these images in class for week 6

You may wish to refer to another image in your essay but the analysis should concentrate centrally only on one image. (any references to another image would be in support to your ideas and should not be focused on too much)

Your paper will ultimately be a thesis-driven essay that:

1) makes a strong claim about the interpretive meaning of the visual and

2) “proves” (makes plausible) that claim with reasonable evidence, especially as gathered through consideration of the visual concepts you explore.

Everything we have learned thus far about analytical thinking can be applied to this essay. A visual image is still a “text” that sends a message and has details that are worth focusing on and analyzing

Advice:

When writing your essay, consider the three main elements it must communicate to your readers clearly and effectively:

1. Your main claim. This is the overall point of your analysis and should come very early. Think of the

main claim in two parts: first, the argument itself, what you’re going to “prove” (make plausible); and second, what the significance of that argument is (in other words, the answer to the implied question, “So what?”). The significance may come later in your essay (perhaps even as the conclusion), but it still has to be there: why is it important to understand the visual in the way that you do? (The significance usually, but not always, will move beyond the image itself.)

2. Visual concepts. Why are the observations or the way you’re observing persuasive and meaningful?

(For instance, if something is on the border, that means that it is not the focus, or that it is less important in some way; or if something is in black and white, we associate that with, perhaps, elegance, or timelessness, or as being “old fashioned”). It is not that “anything goes” (see WA, 125), but rather that you can explain in some logical way why the observations you make mean what they do. Another way to think about this is to ask, “How does this image function rhetorically?”

3. Evidence to prove, support, illustrate, explain, clarify, demonstrate, bolster the main claim. Include

what you need to make your “case” plausible. Exclude everything else. You are not, remember, just writing a list of observations or having a discussion that moves in multiple directions. Instead, you are to narrow your focus, concentrate on one main idea -- do not get sidetracked. There should be a definable, single train of thought that can be followed from the beginning to the end of your essay.

If you consider these three main elements, you’ll see that they’re closely related: you have a claim (of your own) which you’re “proving” with evidence (from your image and perhaps a bit from your experience and background knowledge) which you are showing readers to be reasonable by explaining that evidence by examining visual concepts (which are rather universal).

Assessment Criteria:

The paper should . . .

· have a focused, main claim and include only evidence pertinent to that claim.

· adequately describe the visual image for the reader, but offer no more detail than is necessary for the analysis

itself.

· identify the source of the image within the body of the written text and provide a copy of the image.

· make observations concerning the formal elements and principles of the visual text.

· push observations to conclusions (more about this in class).

· analyze how the creator (artist, designer, etc.) used the identified visual elements and principles to affect and

create meaning.

· organize the analysis effectively and logically.

· be formatted correctly (see my email about basic essay formatting)