Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

Purpose: What do I want the student to do?



This project is designed to 1) foster an understanding of the rhetorical mechanisms of argument, 2) think critically about arguments, 3) evaluate and catalog sources, integrating research into an analysis, 4) compare and contrast writing techniques of different writers, 5) provide students with a topic not covered in class (advertising) that they must investigate and discover on their own, and 6) create a complex thesis that synthesizes both analysis and comparison.



Students will locate and analyze two (2) commercials that address a similar topic or issue and, as much as possible, a similar context and audience. Your analysis should evaluate the rhetorical strategies each argument employs, including which strategies you find to be the most effective.

-Do not confuse proving or disproving the “truth” of the commercial as “analysis.”  Focus instead on the framework and effectiveness of the argument.

- Do not confuse summary as analysis.  Assume your readers have already seen the commercials and do not need a summary!
- Focus on researching just one of these techniques rather than covering everything you see in your target commercials.  Your thesis should focus on 1.) what technique is used, 2.) why that technique is used and 3.) how your two target commercials use that technique differently.


Assignment Requirements:

Rhetorical Analysis Essay

- A 1000 – 1500 word (roughly 3 – 5 pages) academic essay written in APA format
- Identification and report on an advertising technique or rhetorical strategy
- At least three (3) valid academic secondary sources but no more than five (5) (see above)
- Current sources – no source is older than 25 years
- Analysis of two example commercials with a similar purpose (political, public service announcement, military recruitment, evangelism or prescription drug)
- References and cover page in APA format
- Third person point of view

Must contain:
- cover page
- abstract
- Introduction (thesis) & Lit Review on same page
- Analysis -> Commercials  (where is the author using lit review and why?)
- Ref's Page (already included chosen sources in attached document)