Visual Argument Essay
In our daily lives, we are frequently confronted by advertising with very little linguistic content that is highly persuasive. The Internet and your smartphones are mediums that rely on words and images working together to make meaning. Users must be particularly savvy consumers to understand how they are being persuaded by an App’s or a web page’s linguistic and visual components. Users who are unable to detect how they are being swayed by visual rhetoric are very susceptible to its influence.This assignment encourages you to go beyond only considering the words in a text – its linguistic content – and evaluate how visual elements, such as graphics, typography, color, and image placement, contribute to meaning and persuasion.
Format:
Four pages minimum, double spaced. The font must be 12 pt.
Upper left-hand corner: Name, ENG 101: CRN, type of essay, date.
Original title, page numbers, works cited page.
Your chosen visual must be inserted after the original title not taking up more than 1/4 of the first page.
Do not, in any way shape or form use the pronouns “I” or “you.”
Margins must 1 inch all the way around (headers are ½ inch)
All material from outside sources (direct quotations, paraphrases, etc.) MUST be cited properly using MLA guidelines.
Directions:
Part One: Choose a visual argument; it must:
Be primarily visual rather than linguistic. It can take almost any form: a painting, a drawing, a comic strip, a sculpture, a photograph, a computer generated image or animation, a collage, etc.
In the first paragraph describe the visual you choose. Include the name of the artist or advertising agency, cartoonist, etc. Do not include biographical information.
What is the claim presented by the visual? (Evaluate that image. What is it saying?)
Support your claim through that designer’s use of visual choices, such as typography, color, placement, graphics, etc.
Part Two:
Analyze the visual argument. Discuss audience, speaker, message, context, purpose, culture, ethos, pathos, logos: remember, not all will be present in your visual.
In what ways does the visual argument appeal specifically to its audience? That is, how do design choices influence the audience?
What is the message being presented to the audience? Who is the target audience? How do you know?
How does the visual appeal to ethos, logos, and/or pathos? Which of these is the strongest? The weakest? Explain? How are does the design reflect the message? Are the appeals conveyed through color? Through sound? Some other way? Does the visual convey information efficiently?
Part Three: Determine the effectiveness of the visual argument. An effective visual has some, all, or none of the following:
Connects with its audience,
is memorable and easily recalled,
provides information quickly and succinctly,doesn’t confuse the viewer or make them hunt for the pertinent information,
calls the viewer to action.
Your visual cannot be:
A grocery ad
An informative business promotion. (there must be two opposing sides to your visual)
A text message, by definition it’s more textual based than visual even though you see it on a phone.
A photograph that doesn’t show a message in it. Again, there must be two opposing sides to your visual.
Your best choice is going to be a print advertisement.
