Posted: November 30th, 2015

Contributing to an Intellectual Conversation

Description:   6-10 complete pages; typed, double-spaced; MLA format

 

Assignment: Contributing to an Intellectual Conversation

you are being asked to intervene more decisively in that conversation, to interpret one aspect of the debate and thereby contribute to a greater understanding of prejudices and representations of, specifically in the contexts of real- world media–advertising campaigns; magazine cover trends; film depictions; etc.

Using visual texts as your primary source, you will determine your own focus and direction of this project, perusing your own research interests here.

 

Some Tips to Get Started:

Work to identify a key claim or concept that you think can be applied as a lens to help analyze the details focused on in you visuals. This should be something you are interested in!

• Give your essay a title which hints at your essay’s main claim/point
• Statements such as “I feel” or “I think” probably won’t help you develop your claim or make it persuasive to others, so leave them out with this particular assignment
• Review Seems to be about X, but could also be about Y
• Define the relevant concepts or claims that you’ve identified in your selected research
• Explain what the concept taken from your research helps be seen and understood in the
• visuals, using evidence to support such claims
• Analyze details in the visual texts that reveal the limits of your secondary sources concept or claim.

 

Criteria for Evaluation:

Evolved Claim which offers a non-obvious interpretation of the visual texts made possible by secondary sources as a lens
Sufficient analysis of visual text details in the service of the larger claim, defining & providing a relevant interpretation of the visuals through the lens of secondary texts in a way that would make sense to a reader unfamiliar with either texts.
Logical flow of ideas in developed paragraphs with transitions.
Correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and citation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sample Outline:

Introduction: Introduce

• Introduce the topical issue (how advertising, films, magazines, etc. promote masculinity; femininity; socially accepted sexual behaviors, codes of conduct, sexual appeals, etc.)

• Introduce the visuals & relevant material
• Transition into your Claim – your new interpretation of the visuals made possible by

a lens – research about the topical issue. (use a form of the X, Y statement)

 

Body: Support

• Combines summary and analysis to explain what the lens reveals about the visuals

• Identifies a relevant lens from secondary sources and defines the lens without changing its meaning, in a way that would make sense to a reader unfamiliar with your research, all in an effort to support your Claim

 

Conclusion: Close

• Further analysis which explores the significance of the evidence being analyzed.
• Analyzing what would happen if something in the visuals had been changed or done differently (presentation, language, appeal to audience, etc.)
• Final thought and a reminder of your paper’s point

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Essay #4 Thesis Claims

Weak vs. Strong

 

A weak claim either makes no claim or is an assertion that does not need proving – an obvious interpretation that any viewer can spot. It is a fuzzy lens that will not help the writer (or the reader) be guided to a better understanding of the visuals. Most weak thesis statements suffer because they are overly broad (or not specific enough)

 

Weak: “The ads seem to be about deodorant, but are really about men and women.”

 

This claim is obvious and there is no interpretation and/or specifics – nothing to give the paper work to do – nothing to claim or prove. You may start with this and continue improving such.

 

A strong claim makes a claim about the visuals that needs proving. It provides the writer (and the reader) with a clearly focused lens through which to view the visuals.

 

Stronger: “The Old Spice Wolfthorn and Hawkridge ads seem to be about masculinity, but are really promoting socially accepted forms of heterosexual behavior.”

 

 

 

Try It:

After thoroughly analyzing your images, try completing the following X,Y statements as many times as possible until you arrive at a strong lens-based claim.

 

The _____[specify the visuals]________ ads seem to be about ____[initial interpretation]____,but are really about ____[lens-based interpretation]___.

 

 

While the _____[specify the visuals]________ seem to be promoting ____[initial interpretation]____,they are really selling ____[lens-based interpretation]___.

 

 

While the _____[specify the visuals]________ seem to be selling ____[initial interpretation]____,these images are really encouraging ____[lens-based interpretation]___.

 

 

The _____[specify the visuals]________ seem to be about ____[initial interpretation]____,but are really selling ____[lens-based interpretation]___.

 

 

A superficial viewer may believe the _____[specify the visual]________ to be about ____[initial interpretation]____,but a viewer who is familiar with [your secondary source(s)] would see the visuals as really selling ____[lens-based interpretation]___.