Analysis of an Advertisement Essay
Order ID:89JHGSJE83839 Style:APA/MLA/Harvard/Chicago Pages:5-10 Instructions:
Analysis of an Advertisement Essay
Essay #1 or Analysis of an Advertisement Essay (worth 100 points)
Objective: To produce an effective and insightful minimum 5-page (or minimum 1250-word) analytical essay on a print or digital advertisement in which students demonstrate their ability to engage in critical thinking and the writing process for visual rhetoric.
Process:
1) Picking the ad: select a print of online advertisement that lends itself to a close reading and analysis of visuals (and of text if there is any on the picture). You may choose any print or online ad of your choice. I recommend selecting content that has some complexity and individuality to it, one in which you can engage in a deep discussion about the content in and the meaning of the ad. Consider how many elements there are to discuss in that ad and how much you can say about each element. Consider the context (social, cultural, political, etc.) that you can consider in your elaboration about the meaning and signification of the ad. (Watch out for “obvious” ads that might lead to less critical and less original evaluation and argument about the ad. Try not to pick an ad that makes you guess what others, including the advertisers, had in mind. You want to engage in a more critical evaluation of the ad as text)
2) The Writing Process: follow the writing process (prewrite, outline and thesis, draft, and revision) as discussed in class. Once you’ve chosen your ad, begin your prewrite in a process not so different from the example of clustering on the Kim David case, provided in FCTA. Once you have 20+ ideas to work with, choose several leading details/ideas or an overarching point (thesis) to begin your outline, which must have exactly 4 sentences (tentative thesis, topic sentence 1, topic sentence 2, topic sentence 3), no more and no less, please! Then you may proceed with your draft, which should be 2+ pages initially before you can share with others, especially for peer review. Finally, your revised essay must be at least 5 pages in length and include a title, a citation for the advertisement, and appear in correct MLA formatting and citation.
3) Required Terms: make sure you include the terms, “signifier” and “signifier” in your essay. Make sure you analyze at least 3 elements of the ad (although I recommend analyzing more than this!)
4) No Research: you may not conduct research for this essay (it is banned!). This is a close reading assignment, not a research paper.
5) On Peer Review and Tutoring: please note that we may visit the lab for the peer review portion of this assignment. Peer review is an exchange of a draft with at least 2 other classmates. You will also turn in your outline to me on Canvas by the start of that particular class. Remember, do not have any more or less than 4 sentences on your outline – I will not have time to read more than this. (If you’re struggling to come up with this outline, you may visit an on-campus tutor, or see me during my office hours, BUT DO THIS EARLY.)
6) Typing Final Draft: type your final draft on MS Word ONLY (not a PDF, not Google Docs, NOT a link). If you submit on any other format than MS Word, you will receive a 10% deduction for not following instructions. If I’m unable to open your document, you will get no credit (or 0%) on that draft.
7) Uploading the Final Draft: upload your final draft on Canvas, under the category entitled, “Essay #1 Final Draft,” available under the Module, “Major Assignments.” If you do not submit to THIS category by the deadline, you will be penalized 10% for each day that the essay is late (and no submissions will be accepted after the fifth day). I will not accept papers that are printed out or ones that are emailed or sent in any other category that the “Essay #1 Final Draft” category on Canvas. I strongly suggest you visit the Learning Center to get help uploading a paper if you have never uploaded a paper onto Canvas before – do this at least 1 business day ahead of the first deadline.
8) Re-submissions: you may re-submit the essay until the first deadline (when you re-submit a revised draft, it will replace whatever draft you had there in your previous upload and the old draft disappears.)
Consider these questions as you analyze your ad:
1) What is described denotatively in the ad? In other words, what are the visual elements that appear in the picture? A tree? A cat? A bird?
2) What is the connotation of the ad? What do you think the advertisers were trying to convey through the ad? What’s the emotional association? What are the appeals used? What’s the emotional, psychological, or even physiological effect the producers of that ad intended?
3) What is the meaning of the ad?
4) What are the symbols (the signifieds and signifiers) in the ad?
5) What are the cultural codes embedded in the ad?
6) Are you accommodating, resisting, or negotiating in your reading of the ad?
Consider the checklist provided to you in chapter 4 of FCTA.
Good luck! I look forward to reading your essays!