Week Seven Overview (Also Blogs 20-23)

Welcome to Week Seven! This week we rhetorically examine two more visual texts:

• The #LikeAGirl commercials sponsored by Always 
• A photo essay blog, Humans of New York (HONY)

By the end of the week, you will need to decide which complex visual text you want to write a rhetorical analysis about for paper # 2:

1. #LikeAGirl campaign
2. HONY
3. OR a complex visual text of your choice, with my approval.  

By a complex visual text, I mean: a photo blog/essay, a series of commercials or an ad campaign, or a short documentary video, in which there are a variety of images and a complex message. You might even consider an Instagram or Youtube channel. But the text needs to be rhetorical in nature: meaning it seeks to influence or persuade its audience(s) in some way. The text should be complex enough that you can write a 6-8 page essay on it, but not so complex that you are unable to do it justice in that length (probably avoid full-length films for example). And while there can be text, audio, or dialogue, the visual component should be the primary mode.

Monday in class, we discussed the difference between summary and analysis, using an observation/inference chart to start looking for patterns in the texts. We also discussed the #LikeAGirl commercials.

Wednesday in class, we will look at Humans of New York (HONY).

Friday in class, we will discuss the rhetorical analysis assignment (paper #2) and look at two sample essays in the Student's Guide 13.6 (pp. 277-283).

This week's blogs: 

• Revise Blog 20: Compare the paragraph you wrote from your outline of the Brumberg essay with the original. Notice that Brumberg's topic sentences refer to patterns she has noticed in the Girl Culture photos. Her paragraphs then give examples/details from the photos that show that pattern, and discuss why that pattern is significant. The WHY is rhetorical in nature: it has to do with the rhetorical context, the speaker's ethos, the desired effect(s) on the audience, etc. Rewrite your paragraph to improve it. Then add a paragraph about what you learned through this process of outlining Brumberg's essay, and then trying to re-create Blumberg's analysis. 
• Blog Post 21: rewatch the #LikeAGirl commercials. Write a SOAPSTone about them. 
• Blog Post 22: examine the weblog Humans of New York (HONY). There are thousands of photographs in the archive, but click around the website to get an idea what kinds of subjects he photographs. His latest photos, for example, are of refugees in Europe fleeing the Syrian Civil War. Write a SOAPStone about HONY. 
• Blog Post 23: Post an observation/inference chart you made about HONY, then write a paragraph about what interests you most about HONY. What would you want to write about if you chose HONY as your topic for your rhetorical analysis paper?