Young
You will prepare a paper of approximately 5-6 pages evaluating and critiquing an advertisement or advertising campaign designed to sell a product or products, to enhance the credibility of a company, or to undermine the company's competition.
Select an ad (or ads) that you can copy and send to me (either a hard copy or an ad to which you can send me the link. It can be an ad designed for television, the internet, print media, billboards, radio or less conventional channels. You should add a bibliography that includes at least five sources from HSU library databases.
Include the following in your essay:
A description of the rhetor and the advertisement. This should include some background about the advertiser-who are they, what types of goods or services do they produce, what is their target audience etc.
A discussion of the analytical tool(s) that you have chosen. You may select from the various points that we have discussed in class to decide which class materials best critically analyze how the rhetor has tried to influence the audience. For example, you can select from use of pathos, use of ethos, ethical analysis, or use of the Toulmin model. You would never have time to discuss all of these, so you will need to be selective.
Application of the analytical tool-assess the strategies of the rhetor. How did they use persuasion (pathos perhaps) to try to influence?
How effective was the attempt? How ethical was the attempt?
The structure of your essay should look something like this:
I. Introduction
a. Significance of the artifact
b. Preview of the main points
II. Body
a. Who is the Rhetor?
i. Subpoint 1
ii. Subpoint 2
b. I will analyze this using the following:
i. Subpoint 1
ii. Subpoint 2
c. The advertiser used ______ in this way
i. The persuasive attempts
ii. The effectiveness
III. Conclusion
Add the bibliography. I'm not concerned about the style in which you compose the bibliography. Just be sure that you include author, article or book title, publication and date. For web sites, provide the name of the rhetor (to whom does the site belong) and the address.