Rhet Analysis. prompt

Rhetorical Analysis Essay.docx

English 201

Rhetorical Analysis of a Visual Text

Guidelines:

2-3 pages double-spaced, word-processed, in Times New Roman-12, one-inch margins, proofread and edited, in MLA Style with MLA in-text citations and works cited

Objectives:

To demonstrate college-level analysis of the rhetorical situation of a visual source such as a photograph, work of art, graphic, infographic, poster, logo, advertisement, or video clip. This source must be related to your research topic in some discernible way.

Prompt:

Select a visual text (a photo, work of art, poster, logo, advertisement, or video clip) related to your research topic and analyze its rhetorical situation by addressing the following:

• What is its situation? What pre-existing contexts motivated its creation? What issues, ideas, problems, or other motivations, influenced the creation of the message?
• Can you describe the intended audience? Based on what you can gather from the situation of the message, as well as its content, its delivery and tone (for a visual, think of the “tone” as its attitude), what kind of people make up the specific group that is targeted? Think in terms of demographic information: age, income, geographic region, nationality, culture, micro-culture, ethnicity, race, for example.
• Can you identify the purpose of the message? Is the message intended to inform, entertain, analyze, persuade, evoke a feeling, or associate itself with a set of values or emotions? If you find the visual text to make an effective argument, why is it effective and for whom? If it is ineffective, why is it ineffective and for whom?
• Think in terms of ethos, pathos, and logos: can you describe the rhetorical choices that helped (or hindered) the rhetor’s (the communicator’s) effectiveness in building (or cashing in on) credibility or authority (ethos), or in appealing to an audience’s values or emotions (pathos), or in appealing to logic, reasons, and facts (logos)?

Other criteria to consider in addition to situation, audience, purpose, and rhetorical appeals of ethos, pathos, and logos when analyzing visual images: use of text and persuasive language, use of color, shading, shadows, shapes, textures, illustrations, dimensions, angles, perspectives, distances, facial expressions, eyes, clothing, objects. In short, anything you can see in an image is part of its communication and can be analyzed.

In your paper, include a copy of the visual source or a link to it if it cannot be embedded. Be sure to cite the image in MLA Style (see sample rhetorical analysis on Canvas)

Assessment:

This essay is worth 10% of your grade and will be part of your final essay along with the article analysis/topic proposal, literature review, and argument essay (all combined into a single essay)

As I grade, I will consider the text of your analysis as a whole. A grade on the 0-4 will be determined and then converted to a percentage in the gradebook (for example, a 3.2 would be recorded as a grade of 87%). Factors that will influence the grade include:

• The quality and appropriateness of the visual text you select
• Your demonstration of rhetorical analysis of the visual text
• MLA formatting, writing style, sentence completeness, paragraph organization, use of transitions, punctuation, spelling, word choices, clarity, proofreading, and editing
• Use of essay structure and organization, including introduction; clear, organized body paragraphs; and conclusion
• Use of support and development, including inclusion of a clear thesis statement, adequate development of ideas, and use of appropriate and convincing evidence to support your assertions
• Use of rhetoric to establish your credibility in your handling of your topic (ethos), to connect with readers persuasively (pathos), and to use reasons, facts, and logic in your writing (logos)