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Notes for the Instructor: This assignment offers students the opportunity to analyze an example of visual rhetoric. A (pseudonymous) sample paper that analyzes a painting is attached. To implement this assignment, the instructor will need to determine an appropriate set of topics (either by choosing specific images or prompting students to choose a certain type of image), the audience for which the students should write, and the particular guidelines for formatting the final paper.

Assignment Description: Write a rhetorical analysis of an example of visual rhetoric.

Category: Individual project.

Goals: The goal of this assignment is to give students the opportunity to think critically and carefully about the presentation of arguments in samples of visual rhetoric. The end result will be an essay in which the student performs a “close-reading” of the image just as one might read or write about a written text. The purpose of this paper is to convince your audience of your assessment of what argument is being made in this piece, and how it succeeds or fails.

Tasks:

• Select a visual image (it could be a painting, a photograph, a sculpture, a political cartoon, or a variety of other images). It is important that you select an image in which you can research some discussion about this image, preferably some commentary by the artist (this could, for example, come in the form of the title, a caption, or some other written or documented verbal explanation).
• Analyze how the artist’s presentation of this piece effectively or ineffectively makes an argument. Be sure to include specific examples to support your thesis. This could include a discussion of color, composition, style, texture, medium, etc. You may also want to include a discussion of the background of the artist and/or image as it relates to your analysis, including its historical context.

Suggestions: You may want to address some, but probably not all, of these issues in your paper. Please do not “answer” them as an ordered list! There may, of course, be many other issues you'll want to address that are not listed here.

• Genre: How does this piece fit into the genre in which this artist is generally categorized? Does it fit the conventions of this genre, or does it break some of these conventions? How does this affect the audience's reception of this piece?
• Artist: How does this piece fit into the artist's oeuvre (body of works)? Is it typical of the artist's style, or does it mark a shift or break with his or her conventional presentation?
• Medium: How well does the artist's choice of medium help or hurt his or her argument? Is there another medium that would have been more appropriate?
• Audience: Who is the artist's audience? How receptive has this audience been to this message? How does the artist attempt to establish a connection with his or her audience?
• Variations: Have other versions of this image been produced? Is this the original, or is there a pre-existing version? Which is more “authentic”? How does the existence of this/these other version(s) affect the viewer's or listener's experience of this piece?

Audience: Write this paper as if it were an article for The Austin Chronicle. Pick up a copy of The Chronicle or go to the Chronicle web site if you're not already familiar with it, and read through some of the articles (esp. the ones on music, film, and art) to get a feel for what kind of language or tone would be most appropriate for its readers.

Guidelines: The completed paper should be 5-6 pages long, with standard margins and font (Times New Roman or Arial, no larger than 12-point), and should conform to MLA format and include a "Works Cited" page.