Purpose and relevance of this assignment: This assignment will improve your ability to analyze both language and images. And like all of our assignments, it will improve your writing skills. It is relevant because we are bombarded by words, pictures, and video constantly, and we need to be able to interpret their meaning. When the language and images are meant to influence or manipulate us (and they often are), we need to be able to see how that is being accomplished.
Skills and knowledge you will need/use:
- the rhetorical triangle (ethical, emotional, and logical appeals)
- rhetorical devices
- the writing process
Task (steps to complete the assignment):
- Choose an ad that you find compelling, and watch it over and over.
- Take notes about the words and images in the ad. Note how they work together to convey the ad’s message.
- Determine how the script and the pictures/sound appeal to emotion, logic, and credibility.
- Write a thesis statement that explains the appeals of the commercial. Outline your paragraphs; draft and revise your essay.
Criteria for success:
For the essay, you are explaining to your reader how this commercial accomplishes its goal of convincing the viewer to do/buy something. As in any analysis, you are breaking the commercial down into its parts and explaining how they work to persuade the viewer.
This essay must be 2-3 pages in length and must follow MLA format.