Blog Post #7: Final Essay Prewriting (due by class on 4/3)

Make a new post (always identify posts by the post #).  There is no format for the content of this post, but make sure to include the following information: Choose a mediated popular culture text (movie, TV program, song, cartoon, comic strip, or advertisement/ad campaign) that you are interested in analyzing for your final paper and that has a potential to yield material for a rhetorical analysis of at least 1000-1250 words.  Your texts can appear in any media (e.g., television, Internet, radio, etc). However, you must make sure that you choose artifacts with accessible texts (written words, visuals or movie files that can be downloaded or taped, etc). Briefly, you should be able to examine your artifacts–both their discursive and nondiscursive content—in detail.  Put a complete Works Cited list entry of your artifact into your post (you may find MLA guidelines at the links provided on the assignment sheet).  For example, if you are analyzing a movie, make sure to post a complete entry that includes the director name, etc (see MLA citation guidelines).

In your post, describe and summarize the artifact you will analyze (what is it about, what is going on in this artifact, etc) and offer relevant background information about it (for example, the director who made it, the company that released it, the times and places where it appeared, its significance, information about audience reception, etc).  Your description should be as detailed as possible so that you have enough material to revise and use later for an important section of your final paper.


Choose an appropriate method to analyze your artifact and state it in your post. Explain why you have chosen this method to analyze the artifact and how you plan to use them-- bu do not post your analysis results yet! 

Note: You may explore the artifact of your choice from any of the perspectives discussed this semester, except the dramatistic perspective (since it was already used for the first essay). If you want to combine perspectives, make sure to run your idea by the instructor well before the essay due date and discuss how you will narrow down the focus enough so the method used to analyze your text will be clear throughout the essay. 

Artifact Presentations (only those who haven't presented before): In 3 minutes, present your artifact to the class on 4/5.  For this presentation, briefly describe the text of your choice.  Tell us why you have chosen to analyze it, what is interesting about it, what method you have chose to analyze it, and why.

Blog Post #6: Music and Visuals (due by midnight on 3/28)

For this post, you will write a short analysis of an artifact through a music or a visual perspective. Note that this is NOT a prewriting assignment for the final paper, but an independent blog post writing assignment; the purpose of this assignment is to reflect on the value of these perspectives, whether you use the same perspective in your final essay or not.

Selection of Artifact and Perspective:  Select a song to analyze it through the illusion of life perspective to music, OR select a visually rich text (such as a TV show, a commercial, etc) to analyze it through the visual pleasure theory.  Select only one artifact and perspective for this post (you don't have to do the both).  You may want to check the related chapters by Sellnow as necessary.

Analysis:  Using the constructs of the perspective of your choice, write an at least 500-word analysis of the artifact (see your class notes from related discussions and the tips of writing a rhetorical analysis-sample outline on Blackboard).  In other words, state and very briefly describe your artifact, comment on the artifact's target audience, explore what messages the artifact might be communicating to this audience (explore this through the constructs of your perspective) and some potential implications of the message on the audience (either positive or negative).  Contact the professor with any questions.

Blog Post #5: Applying Rhetorical Perspectives (due by class on 3/13)

The next post in your course blog will be a mini rhetorical analysis.  Select a popular culture text that intrigues you in some way.  Then write a 500-word analysis of this text through at least one of the methods (or you may combine two or more) that we have discussed in the last couple of weeks: Narrative, Feminist, and/or Marxist Perspectives. 

This short essay should show the conventional characteristics of a rhetorical essay, such as a brief description and some background about the artifact (the pop culture text that you analyze), a thesis statement that summarizes the text's overall rhetorical strategies and effect, a few paragraphs that provide examples from the pop culture text that support your thesis, and a conclusion that wraps up the overall effect of the text (see the Tips for Writing an Analysis on Blackboard>Course Documents, if you need a reminder on these conventions). 

On Tuesday, March 13th, we will meet in BAL 1013-A lab to complete a peer activity on these posts.  Make sure that you have made this post exactly by the class time so that your peers can work on it (students will lose significant points off the top of the course blog grade for incompletion of such posts).  If you have any questions, email eguler@odu.edu