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September11_2012

Page history last edited by Dundee Lackey 11 years, 6 months ago

Today's Agenda:

For today, you were asked to read two chapters from The St. Martin's Guide... (Ch. 19, "Arguing"; and Ch. 20 "Analyzing Visuals"), as well as the online article “Organizing your Analysis." I hope Ch. 19 and the online reading will help you think about developing your thesis statement, and organizing your rhetorical analysis essay for portfolio 1. Remember the chapters we've read thus far, and use them as resources as you continue drafting your rhetorical analysis.

 

In class today, we'll spend the bulk of our time working on analysis of visual texts, a step many of you will need to take before you can really develop (or support) your thesis. We will work through one image together, and then I'd like you to choose and analyze another in small groups. Any time we have left will be used working through analysis of your own chosen centerpiece for project 1.

 


  

 

Re. Argumentation:

What did you learn from today's readings about developing and supporting a thesis? About organizing your writing to help achieve your purposes?

 

Criteria for Analyzing Visuals (Axelrod & Cooper 675-6):

Key Components:

Composition

  • Of what elements is the visual composed?
  • What is the focal point--that is, the place your eyes are drawn to?
  • From what perspective do you view the focal point? Are you looking straight ahead at it, or up at it? If the visual is a photograph, what angle was the image shot from--straight ahead, looking down, or up?
  • What colors are used? Are there obvious special effects employed? Is there a frame, or are there any additional graphical elements? if so, what do these elements contribute to your "reading" of the visual?

 

People/Other Main Figures

  • If people are depicted, how would you describe their age, gender, subculture, ethnicity, profession, level of attractiveness, and socioeconomic class? How do these factors relate to other elements of the image?
  •  Who is looking at whom? Do the people represented seem conscious of the viewer's gaze?
  • What do the facial expressions and body language tell you about power relationships (equal, subordinate, in charge) and attitudes (self-confident, vulnerable, anxious, subservient, angry, aggressive, sad)?

 

Scene

  • If a recognizable scene is depicted, what is its setting? What is in the background and the foreground?
  • What has happened just before the image was "shot"? What will happen in the next scene?
  • What, if anything, is happening just outside of the visual frame?

 

Words

  • If a text is combined with the visual, what roles does the text play? Is it a slogan? A famous quote? Lyrics from a well-known song?
  • Does the text help you interpret the visual's overall meaning? What interpretive clues does it provide?
  • What is the tone of the text? Humorous? Elegiac? Ironic? 

 

Tone

  • What tone, or mood, does the visual convey? Is it light-hearted, somber, frightening, shocking, joyful? What elements in the visual (color, composition, words, people, setting, etc.) convey this tone?

 

Context(s):

Rhetorical Context 

  • What is its main purpose? Are we being asked to buy a product? Form an opinion or judgment about something? Support a political party's candidate? Take some other kind of action?
  • Who is its target audience? Children? Men? Woen? Some sub- or super-set of these groups (e.g., African American men; "tweens"; seniors)?
  • Who is the author? Who sponsored its publication? What background/associations do the author and the sponsoring publication have? What other works have they produced?
  • Where was it published, and in what form? Online? On television? In print? In a commercial publication (e.g., a sales brochure, billboard, ad) or an informational one (newspaper, magazine)?
  • If the visual is embedded within a document that is primarily written text, how do the written text and the visual relate to one another? Do they convey the same message, or are they at odds in any way? Does the image seem subordinate to the written text, or is it the other way around?
  • Social context: What is the immediate social and cultural context within which the visual is operating? If we are being asked to support a certain candidate, for example, how does the visual reinforce or counter what we already know about this candidate? What other social/cultural knowledge does the visual assume its audience already has?
  • Historical context: What historical knowledge does it assume the audience already possessed? Does the visual refer to other historical images, figures, events, or stories that the audience would recognize? How do these historical reference relate to the visual's audience and purpose?
  • IntertextualityHow does the visual connect, relate to, or contrast with any other significant texts, visual or otherwise, that you are aware of? How do such coniderations inform your ideas about this particular visual? 

 

Class Discussion/Analysis: Dorothea Lange's First Graders at the Weill Public School

  • Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trialsanderrors/3000075183/
  • What do you know about the photographer? Do some research on her work. (Like Paul Taylor, the author of the sample visual analysis you read in Chapter 20, you might start at the Library of Congress's online exhibit Documenting America, which features Lange, along with Gordon Parks and other photographers.) 
  • Analyze the image using the criteria for analysis from your textbook (duplicated above).
  • From this preliminary analysis, develop a tentative thesis that says what the image means and how it communicates that meaning. 

 

Small Group Discussion/Analysis:

Choose one of the images below, and work through the same procedure as above. (You may need/want to locate your own resources to learn more about the source and/or creator of the image.)


For Thursday:

Read "Himba..." and "Anatomy of a Burmese Beauty Secret" (26-39,Gender Roles...) + explore Pinboard: Pretty Is...  AND/OR Pinboard: Board of Man. Before today's class: post a response to our blog. Your tasks in this response are to: 1) Choose ONE thing from your exploration of the Pinboard that interested you, and tell the others about it. 2) suggest a link for the pinboard you explored! (I CAN add links to “Pretty is…”; it’s mine. The board of man is group curated by someone else–I’m not sure how you go about posting to that one. I’d like, though, to start a “male” board, for things like this!)

 

NOTE: You DO NOT have to join Pinterest; however, if you think it might be useful/fun to you, for school, work, or life, join! I don’t think invitations are required to join anymore, but if you find they are, email me, and I’ll send you one. And here, just in case, is “getting started” infofor joining and using the site.

 

Facilitators' note: focus the required summary and discussion questions on the readings from Gender Roles. It would be unwieldy to summarize the whole Pinboard.

 

 

 

Comments (5)

Dundee Lackey said

at 8:48 am on Sep 11, 2012

From your facilitators, some things to think over as you write:

1) What type of assertion are you trying to make?
2) How can you make it clear what you plan to discuss?
3) How do you plan to provide an unbiased analysis?
4) What kind of sources could be used to support your observations concerning your topic?
5) How will including verified statistics and referencing experts lend credit to your rhetorical analysis?
6) Do you have a personal connection to your chosen topic? If so, how will that reflect in your paper?
7) What is your initial reaction to your chosen topic? How will that reflect in your analysis?
8) What message is being conveyed in your topic and which components contribute to that message? (i.e. colors, words, melodies)
9) Who is the author and what is s/he's reason behind displaying the visual/song/article?
10) What was/were the method/s in which it was published? Why?
11) Pages 675-677 of the St. Martin's Guide did an excellent job summarizing key points to examine, were there any that were found to be particularly helpful?
12) After forming your thesis, can it be synthesized better? Does it fully encompass your intentions for your analysis?
13) How do you intend to organize your analysis?
14) Which appeal (i.e. logos, pathos, or ethos) does your topic use as an approach?
15) If it uses more than one appeal, which is dominant? Why?
16) What would be the best way to close your article?
17) Does the topic warrant further research or does it fall into a continuing theme?
18) How did your particular topic come to life? What is its history?
19) What is the context in which it resided? Does its meaning change when it is solo?
20) Why are your observations important?

Dundee Lackey said

at 8:48 am on Sep 11, 2012

How do you choose what is the best way of writing for different topics? With so many details in writing, how do all this come together?

Dundee Lackey said

at 8:48 am on Sep 11, 2012

Questions:
- What is the greatest purpose of visuals? Where do you find them most often that influences you?
- When is looking into a visual too much?
- Does the point in time when the visual was made effective towards the rhetoric?
- What impact do certain visual have on yourself?


This is a great handout on analyzing visuals/visual rhetoric:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/owlprint/725/

Dundee Lackey said

at 8:49 am on Sep 11, 2012

- What are some important components of an effective argument?
- Discuss the importance of counterarguing and refuting readers' objections.
- Discuss the different types of Fallacies and give examples

- At first glance, what are some questions that you should ask yourself about the media being analyze?
Who is the author, photographer, painter, etc.? What background information cal you obtain on them? Who is the intended audience? What canvas or filter was used and why? etc

Dundee Lackey said

at 8:50 am on Sep 11, 2012

When writing about images there are certain components to keep a look out for.
- Of what element was it meant to show?
-What is the first thing that draws your attention?
-From what perspective are you viewing the main focal point?
-What colors are used? What tone is being set?
-If people are depicted, how would you describe them? Why are they of importance?
-What is going on that isn’t the main focus that subtly creates the mood or point that is being set?
These are just a few of the many different things to look out for to help write a visual analysis. Sometimes using an outline and writing down as much information about the image can help
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=visual%20analysis%20tips&source=web&cd=3&ved=0CCwQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnhiatetilibrary.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F03%2Fvisual_analysis_tips-copy-1.doc&ei=olZOUNSlHKe42QWJsYDQAg&usg=AFQjCNEU8mfbIjohgp9CBr3ihasDt685og


Watch out for fallacies http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/fallacies/

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