Projects

We will be working on four projects this semester. Here's a brief description of each and a list of important dates. This is a printable page. Simply select "File > Print" from your browser menu and the page will reformat.

Project One: Analyze a Poster

This project focuses on introducing you to visual composition and key rhetorical concepts. I choose to introduce rhetoric to students through images since we have less preconceptions and apprehensions surrounding what constitutes "quality" writing than we do quality images. That's not to say that the skills we use are exclusive to more visual mediums--by the end of the course I hope you begin to see how these techniques and concepts influence all human communication.

Project Two: News Article

Here you will investigate and write a news article... responding to current debate about a topic. This project places emphasis on using ethos, pathos and logos to push your argument to your readers. Newspaper editorials do this every day, using every trick in their bag to pursuade people that their take on a topic is the right one...

Project Three: Academic Paper

In this project...

Project Four: Advertisement

Your final project will require you to advertize a new product. Your method of advertizing -- be it a Web page, poster, radio ad, or any other method -- will be half the battle. You'll present your ad to the class, along with a paper explaining why you made the choices you did as you designed it.

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