GROUP VISUAL PRESENTATION INSTRUCTIONS
English 2000
1) Your group needs to choose an issue. This needs to be an issue, not a topic—meaning that you are not just interested in discussing an idea or learning facts about a subject; you are interested in the debates and arguments about the issue. For example, the Olympics might be a topic, but the politics of host city selection is an issue since it can foster rich argument.
Your issue needs to be specific enough that you can compare/contrast your visual genre but broad enough that each group member can “specialize” within the issue. Also, make sure you have considered your issue since you will use the same one (and at least one of the visual examples) for your upcoming issue argument paper.
2) Your group needs to choose a visual genre (i.e. ad, poster, billboard, commercial, video, news clip, drawing, painting, political cartoon, architecture, fashion, etc.). Each group member will choose and analyze one visual example within the given genre. For your analysis, you need to consider an assortment of questions:
- What is your initial response/reaction to the visual?
- Who is the writer/creator? What is the message/purpose of the visual? Who is the
target audience?
- What are the rhetorical appeals? How does the writer/creator appeal to logos, pathos,
and ethos? Do they emphasize one appeal over the others? How might the visual’s
message and its target audience encourage this use of rhetorical appeals?
- What are the underlying assumptions of the visual’s message? Does the visual account
for these assumptions?
- What are possible rebuttals to the visual argument? Does the visual anticipate any of
these rebuttals?
3) After you have each analyzed your visual argument, you need to compare/contrast your visual examples alongside those of your group members. Consider the ways in which the visuals are the same. For example, do all of the visuals emphasize the same rhetorical appeal? Do they all have the same underlying assumption? Do they all have the same target audience?
In addition, think about the ways in which each of your visual arguments contrast and why they contrast.
4) On Tuesday and Thursday (10/23 and 10/25), you will present your group’s research and analysis. Three groups will present on Tuesday and three on Thursday. All groups need to be ready to present on Monday. As well, each group member needs to present his/her own visual example and a portion of the compare/contrast section. Also, make sure that you use some visuals in your presentation. Since three groups present each day, your group presentations should take 10-12 minutes. Hopefully, we will have time for Q and A at the end.