As noted in this chapter, writers should not overstate claims they make about a product or service, nor should they speak negatively or disparagingly about a competitor. Search the Web for products that are usually marketed with a large degree of hype, like diet products, sports drinks, weight-loss products, or home electronics.

a. Copy and paste the several examples of online advertisements or include links to Web pages for a particular type of product. First look at the visual persuasive strategies that the graphics and Web designers have chosen to use. Describe the pictures on the pages, the colors used, and the fonts and blinking images used. What do the visuals say about these products?

b. Examine the sites' persuasive writing strategies. Do they include action words? repetitive use of certain words? lots of exclamation points?

c. Include all of the answers to these questions in a memo to the class. How have the visual and rhetorical strategies added to or subtracted from the designers' and writers' persuasiveness?