Writing Project 1: Rhetorical Analysis

Analyzing the rhetorical effectiveness of visual texts

Overview. Whether it is from a history textbook discussing a historic event, a magazine marketing skin cream,
or a politician’s campaign speech, like everyone else you are bombarded daily with information that must be
carefully analyzed. You analyze not just for truth or falsity but also for the ways in which a text is designed to
influence us, both overtly and covertly. Chapter 11 of The Norton Field Guide, “Analyzing Texts,” teaches
students to read a text critically and examine it carefully. To prepare to make critical, useful analyses of the
many visual messages that confront you daily, in this assignment you will explore and evaluate how effectively
a visual text achieves its intended purpose.

Analyzing a text. If you are not familiar with the task, then creating a close, critical reading of a visual text
may present a new challenge. If you are more accustomed to stating your own opinion or reacting to ideas
than to analyzing texts, you may find the task of analyzing a text challenging. That’s okay. In class we will
model how to analyze, walking the class through analytical techniques, and encouraging progress as you try
out unfamiliar ways of thinking and writing. In the resulting essay you will use evidence created through
analyses of the text to support your assertions about the way (and how well) the text works.

How do I choose something to analyze? First, you will spend time finding visual representations of a subject
or issue that you find engaging and worthy of a deeper look. You can use advertisements, infographics,
advocacy ads, PSAs, [photographs of] public art, billboards, a web page, etc.

Off-limits media: Many kinds of texts are suitable for this assignment, but in this assignment we will
not be analyzing film-based media, e.g. films, television, commercials, Youtube, Snaps.

You should be able to describe what you are analyzing clearly so that readers have enough information to
know whether or not your analysis is fair, even if readers aren’t familiar with the object being evaluated.

Guidelines for choosing an appropriate visual text include the following:

● Look for relatively concise visual texts. Newspaper and magazines often include a number of concise
advertisements and infographics. A short walk around campus or through a business district might
yield other concise texts in the form of billboards, brochures, or flyers. Other possibilities can be found
on organization or commercial web pages.
● Choose a text with a clear but challenging purpose, author, or audience. A single message, audience, or
purpose may represent only part of the possibilities. Many visual texts contain more than one thesis-
like message, target one or more audiences, or serve several purposes. Find a text that is akin to the
metaphorical frog in biology class--simple, but still complex enough to be challenging to dissect.
● Look for an item with a structure that can be outlined without excessive difficulty and that won’t
require you to spend excessive time figuring out the meaning. Almost any text, even one that seems
simple, can grow in complexity and depth as a student analyzes it, but the point of the assignment is
the analysis—not mastery of a complex concept.
 ● Anticipate learning about the context of the item. If you choose an item on a contemporary subject,
you may know or be able to find out easily the context of the item’s information or argument. An
older document, however, may require you to research the context within which the text was written.
● Consider the emotional response that your peers may have to a text. If you choose a text on a
controversial topic, you may struggle to separate your response from your opinions when analyzing the
item. The more controversial the topic represented in the text, the more difficult it may be for you to
respond objectively by establishing the item’s context.

How do I analyze something? You will need to closely “read” the text you’ve chosen in order to develop a
clearly articulated analysis of the text’s author, purpose, message, and intended audience. To do this you will
need to consider the following questions:

Describing the rhetorical situation

● Who is the author? Write a summary of the “plot” of the visual. Tell who is “speaking” and what
information you know about him or her—for example, allegiances, background information, and point
of view.
● What is the text’s purpose? What is its message? What is the main idea that the author is trying to get
across? Why does the author want to make this point? What does he or she wish to accomplish? Is the
purpose stated directly or implied?
● Who is the audience? What is the author’s stance toward the audience?
Analyzing the parts of a text
● What is the text? What are its parts?
● What artistic or technical devices does the text employ? What about the author’s use of language?
What about the voice (e.g. sarcastic, humorous . . . this may have more than one characteristic). How
do elements of the text like design, color, and font work to support its message? What details add to
your interpretation? How do these details influence the message?
Describing the text’s appeals
● How does the text appeal to the audience?
● To what extent does the text employ the classical appeals (ethos, pathos, logos, kairos, etc.)
Describing the context
● What is the context of the text? Where did the text originally appear?
● How does its topic fit in with the larger world? In other words, what topics are addressed? For example:
Is it a patriotic text meant to inspire people? Does it address poverty and social injustice among
immigrant populations? What might the text be reacting to?
● How is the text informed by cultural norms or stereotypes?
● To what extent does the text challenge or support those cultural norms or stereotypes?
Overall assessment
● How effective is this text? In other words, does it achieve the purpose? Why or why not?

Deliverables: Your completed essay should

● be a minimum of 1200 words in length
● Incorporate 2-3 images of the text into the discussion (the whole text and/or parts of it)
● be formatted using APA style.

Project submission:
● Rough Draft: Your rough draft should be uploaded to Google Classroom prior to peer review.
 ● Final Draft: Your revised, proofread and edited draft should be uploaded as a PDF to the WP1 drop
box located in the “SUBMIT WRITING PROJECTS” link of our Blackboard site.

Peer-review & Feedback: During our peer-review day you will receive at least two reviews of your essay from
peers. You will use these reviews and your own skills to revise the draft. Final, polished drafts of your project
will be assessed using a rubric.

Tips:
● Choose a topic that is out of the ordinary, or one seemingly ordinary to others but that you have
unique insight into
● Get started early, set a writing/research schedule and stick to it
● Talk with other students about their projects

Recommended Related Chapters in the Norton Field Guide to Writing, 4e

★ 5–9 rhetorical situations
★ 2 reading in academic contexts
★ 40 describing
★ 53 APA style
★ 28–31 drafting, assessing your own writing, getting response and revising, editing and proofreading

Recommended Viewing
★ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXhLmkrN0-I