Chapter 5 Projects: Reading & Rhetoric

Project Assignment

Project Goal

In Chapter 5, you studied many strategies for successful critical reading. One of the most important strategies is identifying rhetorical appeals. Recognizing how authors attempt to influence their audience will prepare you to think and write critically about a text. The goal of this project is for you to find visual texts that use rhetorical appeals and demonstrate your understanding of how appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos are used to persuade the audience.

Directions

Part 1

Rhetorical appeals are employed in both visual and written texts. In fact, visual texts are a good place to start when first learning about appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos. Commercials are common visual arguments, and almost all of them use strong rhetorical appeals.

Review this advertisement that aims to raise money for animal cruelty prevention.

This commercial makes an appeal to pathos through distressing visuals and sad music to invoke an emotional response in the viewer. The commercial also appeals to ethos by endorsing a celebrity spokesperson to communicate the organization's message. Last, it appeals to logos by incorporating statistics that appeal to the viewer's sense of logic. The authors of this visual text incorporated all three rhetorical appeals in hopes that viewers would be inspired to donate money to their cause. Remember, most texts employ some balance of appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos for a well-rounded argument.

Part 2

Now that you've reviewed an example, it's your turn to find a visual argument. Get in groups of three and brainstorm a list of advertisements (on TV or in print) that have affected you through the use of rhetorical appeals.

Next, spend time with your group members doing online research. Use YouTube and Google Images to find each example on your list. Then, as a group, choose three visual texts that make the strongest rhetorical appeals.

Part 3

Next, take notes on these three visual arguments with your group. For each one, identify the rhetorical appeal(s) you noticed; then, write a few sentences explaining how the appeal is incorporated, what the author's ultimate purpose might be, and whether you think the argument is effective or not.

Part 4

Present your ideas to the class for discussion. Each group will show their top three advertisements and explain how rhetorical appeals are at work in each one. If your classroom has a projection device, consider projecting these visual arguments for the class. For online classes, send links to your classmates via your school e-mail or discussion board.

Part 5

Individually, write a reflection paragraph discussing your experience throughout this project. Your paragraph should include a topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding sentence. Use standard academic English rules and respond to the following questions.

  • How do you notice rhetorical appeals affecting your everyday life?

  • How might you be able to use rhetoric inside and outside the classroom to connect to a variety of audiences?

  • How could you apply what you learned in future visual and rhetorical analyses?

Project Materials

Commercial on animal cruelty: (hawkes.biz/AnimalCrueltyCommercial)

Internet access to Google and YouTube

Student Checklist

Part 1

Individual

Part 2

Group

Part 3

Group

Part 4

Group

Part 5

Group

Writing Assignment

Writing Assignment Goal

In this chapter, you've studied several strategies for reading critically. However, one of the most important strategies connected to all elements of critical reading is note taking. The goal of this writing assignment is to demonstrate your ability to annotate a text, pointing out key information while clearly illustrating your understanding of textual elements by making notes in the margins.

Directions

For this writing assignment, you will annotate a text from an outside source. You will read the text critically, then use Word to annotate it and write margin notes that define, summarize, challenge, respond to, and question elements of the text.

Part 1

Spend time carefully reading the essay linked under the "Writing Assignment Materials" section, or read another essay that your instructor has assigned.

Part 2

After you've read the essay at least once, copy and paste the full essay text into a blank Word document and begin annotating it.

First, highlight key information and important ideas in the text. However, highlighting everything will make it difficult to distinguish important concepts from less important ones, so be selective and prioritize key ideas.

Part 3

Next, take some notes in the margins. Under the Review tab in Word, use the Comments feature to insert notes that add meaning, clarification, and questions to the highlighted text. Make sure you address each of the following strategies at least once throughout your annotations:

  • Define concepts, technical terms, and unfamiliar vocabulary.

  • Summarize ideas that seem well-supported and logical.

  • Challenge ideas that seem incorrect or poorly supported.

  • Respond to any ideas that spark an emotional reaction.

  • Question yourself about areas for further research.

Part 4

Now that you have fully annotated your text, it's time to consider how critical reading leads to critical writing. Draft a thesis statement for an essay in response to the text you just annotated. The thesis can be argumentative, analytical, or explanatory, but it must be these things:

  • A complete sentence

  • Developed enough to indicate a "big idea"

  • Written in your own words (no quotes or statistics)

Writing Assignment Materials

Essay: (hawkes.biz/OrwellPoliticsAndEnglish)

Microsoft Word or other word-processing program

Student Checklist

Part 1

Individual

Part 2

Individual

Part 3

Individual

Part 4

Individual