Your first essay assignment

Visual Rhetoric Assignment

This assignment requires students to develop proficiency in rhetorical analysis and argument by developing a writing piece that closely problematizes one visual text. 

You have two choices for a text to analyze.

• You may choose your or a friend’s Facebook profile picture and think critically about what that image is communicating.  What kind of an ethos, or persona, is the image trying to persuade its audience that it possesses?  I want you to be critical of the image in some ways, even if it is of yourself.  You might even pick a picture that you used to use, but don’t anymore.  Why did you change it?  How does the image—whoever it is—communicate personality, good or bad?  What kind of details can you pick out that add or detract from what the person wants others to see about him or her?
• Alternatively, you may get out a camera and take a picture.  Based on the idea that every image communicates something, walk me as your reader through the aspects that are being conveyed to a potential viewer for that image.  Is there a logic here?  Be a little critical of the image.  Think about what you were trying to communicate and how it fails or doesn’t fail.  What kind of emotions does the image draw out of a potential audience, and why and how does the image draw out those emotions?

The aim of your argument is to support a thesis about an image—using the tools of persuasion—concerning how your chosen visual text itself offers a persuasive argument with troublesome issues or tactics.  The form of this assignment is an essay that analyzes the visual image and the rhetorical elements of composition, presentation, intended audience, and effect by looking at the image’s logical, emotional, and ethical appeals.  You should quote at least two other sources for your argument other than the primary rhetorical text—that is, the image—that you are analyzing.  This assignment should include a Works Cited page, be formatted according to MLA standards (which includes double spacing, 12 point font, and Times New Roman) and be a minimum of 1000 words.

First draft due: 9/13, must be onto your third page but not necessarily complete

Final draft due: 9/22