In this essay, you will choose a movie poster, album cover, video game cover, commencement speech, or TED Talk to analyze rhetorically, identifying at least two rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, pathos, and/or kairos — we’ll discuss these more in a later module) used in the image/speech and at least three additional visual or rhetorical elements (listed below). While you are free to choose a movie poster, album cover, video game cover, commencement speech, or TED Talk you feel would be interesting to discuss, you’ll also want to be certain that there is enough content to write about and that you can identify two rhetorical appeals and at least three rhetorical features within it. This means that you may not be able to choose your favorite movie, album, video game, or speech, but you may certainly choose one of these with an interesting and intriguing image or message.
For example, in the movie poster for Titanic (linked hereLinks to an external site.), you could write about the use of color and how it demonstrates the pathos in the image or how the lettering in the word Titanic resembles steel and what this says about ethos.
Begin with an introduction that includes your thesis statement. The introduction should introduce the chosen movie/album/video game and the accompanying image or introduce the speech and its context (when, where, and by whom it was delivered). Do NOT include a summary here; there’s more including a summary below. Remember that the thesis statement must be the last sentence in the introduction (not the only sentence in the introduction) and that it must clearly list at least two rhetorical appeals and three visual elements.
Before beginning your analysis, your first body paragraph should provide a summary of the image or the speech. Again, remember your audience here — you are trying to explain this image or speech to a room full of people who may not have seen the image or heard the speech. How would you get them to see the image or hear the speech the same way you do? Be sure to properly cite the summary in-text.
*NOTE: If you have chosen to analyze an image (rather than a speech), do NOT provide a summary of the movie, album, or video game itself. A summary of the film, album, or game is not relevant to the essay. In theory, your audience – and you, for that matter – does not need to see the movie, for example, in order to understand how the movie poster functions as a rhetorical text. Focus only on summarizing the image.
Each analytical body paragraph should contain at least one visual element or rhetorical tool connected to at least one rhetorical appeal to help present your own analysis of the movie poster, album cover, video game cover, commencement speech, or TED Talk. For example, about the Titanic movie poster, if I’m talking about the use of pathos and facial expression/body language, I might talk about how the placement of the actors’ faces contributes to a sense of both longing and separation. Maybe I will talk about the strength of love, symbolized by the riveted steel lettering in Titanic or that the actual ship is used to provide a sense of authenticity. These are the kinds of issues you can explore in your analytical body paragraphs.
In the conclusion, reinforce your “reading” of the image or speech — how do specific visual elements or rhetorical tools connect with specific rhetorical appeals to communicate with the target audience? How is context represented through the image/speech and what does that mean for your analysis? Are the visual/rhetorical appeals effective for the target audience?
If you have chosen to analyze an image, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with visual elements. A visual element is any way the movie poster, album cover, or video game cover engages with you in a way that you can see. Look at your chosen image more than once. Notice what catches your eye both immediately and after some time spent gazing. What stands out to you and why? Here is a list of elements:
Text
Font (size and/or type)
Color
Content
Focal Point
Foreground/Background
Location
People
Tagline
Size/Scale
Camera Angle
Mood/Tone
Symbols
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