Description/Analysis
For this essay, please find an editorial or political cartoon that you will then describe and rhetorically/ critically analyze.
After you find your cartoon, you are asked to compose three paragraphs: one in which you describe the image and the text (if any), one in which you analyze the compositional structure and strategies the author uses, and one in which you evaluate the effectiveness or persuasiveness of the cartoon in terms of what the author is trying to do and why they succeed or fail.
Specifics:
If at all possible, copy-and-paste the cartoon into your essay: see example.
In each paragraph, fully contextualize the cartoon in your opening sentence(s): illustrators full name and publication the cartoon is from with the date (i.e. Jim Smiths cartoon from The New Yorker, 10 June 2019, shows an image of.).
For the first paragraph (description), do not analyze or evaluate. Simply describe what you see including any text or captions. Consider the position, the size, coloration or shading, and markers of identity (female, Hispanic, etc.).
For the second paragraph (analysis and evaluation), you may/should use description and analysis in the process of evaluation. Consider the relation between the form and the content and add some modifiers, such as color, size, and tone (of any text and/or of the image). Consider devices, such as repetitions and metaphors, and appeals (pathos/emotional, logos/logical, ethos/ethical). What is the argument/ thesis? What is the so what?
For the third paragraph (evaluation), you may/should focus on the effectiveness/ ineffectiveness and/ or the persuasiveness / non-persuasiveness of the cartoons argument and why, which will be based on your analysis. What is the author saying about culture, beliefs, current events, or problems? Why should we care or why does this argument matter?
Each topic sentence (that is, the first sentence of each paragraph) should be roughly the same, starting each paragraph with a similar statement.
Use at least two pieces of evidence from the image/ text (caption or in-image text) for each paragraph.
You may use the same pieces of evidence for each paragraph. Repetition across the paragraphs is probable and not problematic.
If you are focusing on rhetorical analysis and evaluation, pay attention to the appeals (ethos, logos, pathos) and/ or the devices (repetition, allusion, personification, etc.). If you are focusing on critical analysis and evaluation, focus on anomalies, repetitions, connections, and hidden or deeper meanings.
If the illustrator is not stated, simply label him “Jim Smith.”
Do not worry about citations yet, but if you can, supply a Works Cited/ Bibliography/ References page to practice this skill. Be sure to add a header (your name, assignment, date) and a title for your assignment.
