I’ve read and scored all your Essay 2 Phase 1 drafts by now, and met with a number of you already to provide feedback on those drafts. Based on these meetings, I’ve also compiled a list of things I’ll be looking for in Phase 2, and issues to watch out for in your own work as you write towards Phase 2 this week:

Requirements

Your essay must prioritize rhetorical analysis. If your instinct is to do a lot of visual interpretation, or to talk generally about textual comments underneath your chosen image(s), stop yourself! While your claim doesn’t have to be about rhetorical factors directly, it should be clear that rhetorical factors helped you get to that claim—e.g., don’t formulate a claim that’s solely about visual analysis, or that expresses larger social ramifications without also expressing how rhetorical factors helped you arrive at that conclusion. Your essay must also include visual analysis. I provide an example of a specific controlling idea that includes visual analysis and rhetorical analysis signposts in the Week 7 Schedule of Work blog post.

Once you’ve refined your controlling idea, the rest of your draft will be a mixture of visual analysis and rhetorical analysis. Remember, only give your reader what they need to know in order to follow along, and give it to them in the order they need to see it to understand what comes next. If it helps, you can think of a structure like this as your model:

  1. Introduce your subreddit in a way that indicates this paper will be about a cultural artifact (1 para.)
  2. State your controlling idea (1-2 paras.)
  3. Describe Image 1 (1 para.)
  4. Do visual analysis of Image 1, using the Visual Analysis Worksheet on D2L for guidance (1 para.)
  5. Do rhetorical analysis of Image 1, focusing on the rhetorical factors most significant to the image, using the Rhetorical Situation Worksheet on D2L for guidance (1-2 para.)
  6. Repeat Steps 3-5 for Image 2.
  7. Conclude by considering the larger social ramifications of how visual communication functions on the subreddit

The above is not the only way to approach Phase 2, but it might help if you feel stuck. Don’t forget you can also rely on the Assignment Guidelines and the Sample Student Essays.