Analysis of Visual Rhetoric (3-5 pages, double spaced) Preface The purpose of this assignment is to introduce you to some

key aspects of visual rhetoric, with the hope that you will think deeply about how persuasion works within the visual realm. Like the Rhetorical Analysis of Spoken/Written Text essay, you will analyze the rhetorical situation of the text/advertisement, the context surrounding it, and the rhetorical appeals and strategy at play. In addition, you will analyze and explain the intended effects of the visual rhetoric within these texts, e.g., color usage, camera angles/lenses, texture, use of space, etc. Many of these strategies are explained in our course readings, and we will be exploring some samples in class as well. Assignment Identify a piece of visual rhetoric (commercial, magazine spread, museum piece, campus monument, poster/visual artifact from the University Archives, a graphic novel, etc.) that uses rhetoric (visual and spoken/written, perhaps) in an interesting and persuasive manner. By interesting, I mean that the text in question should be genuinely sophisticatedthere is no point in analyzing the obvious. Write an analysis that will help your readers understand how the text works to persuade its audience(s). Take some of your answers to the Invention Prompts and shape them into a claim about the piece. You want to link the rhetorical aspects of the piece to distinct subtext(s) you identify that make the persuasive argument float. In other words (and though this sounds a bit abstract), I want you to identify what argument or commonplace assumption the piece first has to present or draw upon (say, about the nature of women, a certain quality of a celebrity, or a certain style of living) to persuade us in a more specific way. Objectives 1. Be interesting. Go beyond the obvious. Have fun. 2. Make a strong claim about the piece and utilize good analysis sentences. 3. Present a context for the piece of rhetoric. 4. how a strong capacity for rhetorical analysis and reveal the pieces ideological underpinnings, commonplaces or subtext(s).. 5. Write in a lively, unique, memorable voice and style. Do not merely present a report. 6. Expand/challenge/transform the audiences understanding of the text.