Dean/102

English 102 Course Competencies

1. Write for specific rhetorical contexts, including circumstance, purpose, topic, audience and writer, as well as the writing’s ethical, political, and cultural implications.

2. Organize writing to support a central idea through unity, coherence and logical development appropriate to a specific writing context.

3. Use appropriate conventions in writing, including consistent voice, tone, diction, grammar, and mechanics.

4. Find, evaluate, select, and synthesize both online and print sources that examine a topic from multiple perspectives.

5. Integrate sources through summarizing, paraphrasing, and quotation from sources to develop and support one’s own ideas.

6. Identify, select and use an appropriate documentation style to maintain academic integrity.

7. Use feedback obtained through peer review, instructor comments, and/or other sources to revise writing.

8. Assess one’s own writing strengths and identify strategies for improvement through instructor conference, portfolio review, written evaluation, and/or other methods.

9. Generate, format, and edit writing using appropriate technologies.

Essay 2: Rhetorical Analysis of a Political Attack Ad

Purpose: The purpose of this essay assignment is for you to hone your critical thinking skills to evaluate the effectiveness and legitimacy of political attack ads.  \

Skills: Learn and use tactics to determine the credibility of sources. Practice thinking critically by recognizing and evaluating rhetorical strategies, researching and evaluating the credibility of sources, and synthesizing information from those credible sources. Utilize and synthesize multiple sources.    

Introduction to Topic and Assignment Prompt: A rhetorical analysis essay recognizes and evaluates the strategies a text uses to persuade its readers.  A successful rhetorical analysis explains the purpose of the piece, recognizes the rhetorical tools used, provides examples of these tools, and assesses their effectiveness. A successful rhetorical analysis does not present the writer’s opinions on the topic. You must judge how successful the ad is in persuading the audience through the use of rhetorical strategies.

Commercials are the most pervasive tool of persuasion that we have. We are bombarded with images and visual texts trying to influence us. This is especially true in the run up to elections. Each side is trying desperately to persuade us that their supported candidate is the right choice for us. However, it is important to be able to recognize how these advertisements are influencing us and how context matters. It matters what group is creating these ads. We must also recognize false accusations based on non-credible information.  

Assignment Task: Rhetorically analyze a current political attack ad. This assignment requires that you research any claims being made; identify the work’s audience, purpose, and rhetorical strategies; identify the organization, group, and/or person who created the ad; and evaluate the effectiveness of the ad to persuade its audience. You must quote, paraphrase, or summarize from at least four credible sources concerning the claims being made in the work and synthesize these sources to determine if the claims being made against the candidate are valid.

Research Requirements:

• Analyze and quote from one primary source (a political attack ad currently airing).
• Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize from at least four credible secondary sources that support or dispute the validity of the claims made in the political ad.

Requirements: Things you need to address in your essay.

1. What are the claims being made in the advertisement? Thoroughly research any claim or use of logos and evaluate its truthfulness. Is the claim valid? Is it taken out of context? Is it presented in a way that may be misleading? Is the information provided effective in persuading its audience? Why or why not?  Remember that you should be as objective as possible when examining the issue being addressed. This is not a paper giving your opinion on the issue, but a paper identifying and evaluating the rhetorical strategies used in the work. 
2. Identify the text’s purpose. What is the ad saying to its audience about the subject? What is its message? What is the work attempting to inform and persuade its audience of?
3. Identify the targeted audience. How does the work define its audience? Does it use images that are recognizable to that audience? What values does the audience hold that the artist appeals to?
4. Ethos: What group created the ad? What do we know about the group?  Or was the ad created by the campaign representing the politician? Does the candidate support the ad? How does this ad or detract from the ethos of the ad? How does the commercial add to its credibility? Does it quote from a source? Does it have high production values?
5. Pathos: Does the work use emotions to persuade? What emotions? Anger? Frustration? Sadness? Pity?  What images and language does the ad use to elicit this emotional response.
6. Logos: What reasoning does the text use? Does it appeal to common sense? Does it appeal to the values of its audience?
7. Kairos: What is going on currently in the country to make this particular appeal and claim relevant to voters? How is the ad saying exactly the right thing at exactly the right time?
8. Analyze the different images used. How do they present the issue or candidate in images that support the ad’s purpose?  
9. Evaluate the effectiveness of the elements as well as the effectiveness of the work as a whole.

Rhetorical Analysis Organization

• The introduction of the essay includes the title of the work to be analyzed, where and when it was made/published, some background on the topic or issue addressed, the targeted audience, and the assertion being made.
• The thesis statement informs the reader of the purpose of the text and makes a claim about the overall effectiveness of the work and why it is effective or not.  
• In the body paragraphs the writer should

• inform the reader about the issue or candidate, cultural context surrounding the issue, and impetus for the work;
• use credible library database sources to determine if the claims being made are valid. Explain if the information is taken out of context or incomplete.  
• recognize the audience, determine how the ad identifies with its audience and uses evidence that speaks to that audience, analyze how the work appeals to the values of its audience;
• analyze the uses of rhetorical strategies, provide examples from the ad of the rhetorical strategies being used, and evaluate the effectiveness of the strategies to persuade and inform the audience.
• The concluding section summarizes points about the text’s rhetorical strategies and their overall effectiveness.

Things to Avoid

• Stating Your Opinion of the candidate or issue.
• Spending too much time summarizing the text.

Research Requirements:

• Utilize one primary source in the form of a political attack ad.  
• Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize from at least three secondary sources found in the databases that speak to the validity of the claims being made about the candidate.

CGCC Library Databases: You will have to use your meid and password to login to these databases. You can use any of these databases.  I would first review the Gale Virtual Reference Library and the newspaper sources.  

Rhetorical Situation:

Writer-an academic student in a writing classroom

Purpose-to rhetorically analyze a current political attack ad and determine its effectiveness and whether the claims about the candidate are valid.  

Audience-fellow academic students

Context-written for a grade in an academic classroom for an academic audience.

Based on the rhetorical situation posted above, this is an academic essay meant to analyze, not to persuade or argue, an academic audience. As an analytical academic essay, it should be written in formal language in third person, utilizing correctly cited quotes, paraphrases, summaries, and ideas from credible, appropriate sources. Both MLA in-text citations should be used and the essay should include an MLA works cited page.    

Requirements

Typed

Double-spaced

12-point Times New Roman font

Minimum of  1000 words

MLA Format