Essay

Analyze a cultural object for its persuasive effects and material rhetoric.

Instructions

Please complete the assignment in a single Word document and submit it to complete the assignment.

In 400–600 words, identify an object in your home and analyze it as a persuasive artifact. Answer these two questions:

• What does it persuade you to think, do, or believe?
• How does it persuade you to think, do, or believe as such?

Your analysis should focus on claims made by the artifact about your personal identity (race/gender/orientation/membership). Make a clear and thoughtful argument about the object as something that can be understood as a material instance of rhetoric. This argument should not be limited to whether the object was merely aesthetic, functional, or in conversation with community standards, but should judge it according to the criteria of how it—intentionally or not—persuades you to think, act, or believe in specific ways. Were the purposes of the object (assuming it had an intended purpose) fulfilled by its persuasive stance or contradicted? What were the consequences or potential impact of the artifact? How are the principles behind it valid?