Note: For either assignment I am willing to entertain alternative individual approaches to these subjects which stretch your creativity beyond the boundaries suggested by the descriptions below.

In the first half of the course we deal with the rhetorics of advertising (print, and television commercials) and information (sports, broadcast news, documentaries).   For your first paper select an area in either advertising or information and use that as your focus.  In either case your paper should attempt to draw together your thinking about the subject by selecting one or two issues to focus on, analyzing some specific artifacts which reflect or illustrate these issues, and drawing conclusions based on your analysis.  The approach you choose should reflect interests you'd like to explore, but the range of possible topics might be suggested by the following samples.

Advertising:

If you elect to write on advertising you might provide

• an historical survey of the rhetoric of advertising in the area of __________________;
• a survey of the rhetorical approaches currently used to sell _______________;
• the image of the family (of _______________) in print advertising 19__ to (&) 20__;
• advertising in two different magazines (Playboy and Hustler; Cosmopolitan and Self; The New Yorker and The Saturday Evening Post, George and Vanity Fair, etc.);
• a series of commercials for a specific type of product (cars, cereal, clothing, fast food, etc.);
• an analysis of a specific current commercial campaign (Nissan, Special K, Levis, Wendy's, etc.).

If you elect to write on information you might provide

• an analysis of a sporting event or game on television adapting the approach of Barbra Morris and Joel Nydahl in their articles in the text and in handouts;
• analyses of arguments on a single topic on television political analysis programs such as The McLaughlin Group, Nightly Newshour, Meet the Press, or Crossfire;
• analysis of ethos, pathos, and logos on selected daytime talkshows, trying to differentiate among hosts or identify certain characteristics of a program over a week's time;
• analysis of the rhetoric of a single documentary program or comparison of two or more programs on the same theme;
• analyses of reviews of a single film or book or television show from several different critics;
• analysis of comparable coverage of a news event by two or more news programs (CBS, ABC, NBC, CNN, This Week, Nightline, etc.).

Whichever of these two topics you choose, the paper will be a formal, well-prepared presentation of ideas about specific issues, examples, or research in the general area of attention.  It will be seven to ten pages long, typed, double-spaced, with footnotes and bibliography where appropriate.

This paper is due on February 24.

In the second half of the course we deal with the rhetorics of entertainment (music videos, film, internet).   For your last paper select an area in entertainment to use as your focus.  Your paper should attempt to draw together your thinking about the subject by selecting one or two issues to focus on, analyzing some specific artifacts which reflect or illustrate these issues, and drawing conclusions based on your analysis.  The approach you choose should reflect interests you'd like to explore, but the range of possible topics might be suggested by the following samples.
 

• a close analysis of the rhetoric of a specific recording (duplicate the lyric sheet as an appendix);
• a close analysis of the rhetoric of a television program, either a single episode or an overview based on several episodes;
• the image of _____ ( of the family, of the child, or the like) in current television series (in two series from 19__ and 19__/20__; in two films; in two recordings; in a typical hour of MTV or CMT)
• a close analysis of a specific film;
• a close analysis of a specific video or series of videos;
• an analysis of a specific internet site or comparison of several competing or similar sites.

The paper should be a formal, well-prepared presentation of ideas about specific issues, examples, or research in the general area of attention.  It should be seven to ten pages long, typed, double-spaced, with footnotes and bibliography where appropriate.

This paper will be due on April 21.
 

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