Analyzing Visual Rhetoric

This request is for early draft.
Terms You Should Know
• Stakeholder: an organization or individual with a vested interest or concern; often financial,
but can be influenced by various factors
• Visual Rhetoric: argumentative strategies conveyed through images or design; includes
aesthetics, color, media, typography, and space
• Rhetorical Appeals: strategies used in the art of persuasion
• Ethos: appeal to credibility or morality
• Pathos: appeal to the emotions
• Logos: appeal to logic and reason
• Kairos: appeal to timeliness
• Rhetorical Fallacies: logical errors or inconsistencies in an argument
Project Description
Project 1 asks you to write a 3-page core document identifying a stakeholders’ argument that has
been projected through their visual images. You will think critically about the visual and
rhetorical strategies this group implements in their campaigns. You will choose two specific
images created by the organization about a global or cultural issue (i.e. advertisements, PSAs or
static images used on a website, flyer or billboard) and analyze how these visual arguments
reflect the organization’s goals.
Project Assignment
You will write an essay of a 3-page core document words based on the following requirements:
1. select a single stakeholder (commercial or non-profit organization) and present its goals,
mission or message regarding your chosen topic or issue
2. include a core statement that presents the relationship between the two images and the
stakeholder’s main argument, including how the two images represent the interests of the
stakeholder and its goals, message, or mission
3. provide background on the stakeholder (context)
4. analyze the rhetorical strategies used in both images, taking into consideration audience,
message, purpose, rhetorical appeals, and/or rhetorical fallacies, and pointing to specific
details from the image to support your claim
5. use at least three sources; one must be a source from the stakeholder, and the others may
come from secondary sources about the stakeholder or about the images discussed
Assessment
This assignment will be evaluated using the Project 1 Rubric: Project-1-Analyzing-VisualRhetoric-Rubric-1

The early draft should be used as a brainstorming space where you can begin thinking about the
visual arguments used by stakeholders and how they achieve their desired goals using visual and
2
rhetorical strategies. You may use this draft to outline, free write, map, etc. if the exercise leads
to more formulated claims in the subsequent draft.