WHAT AM I SUPPOSED
TO WRITE ABOUT
Deciphering and Understanding
Writing Prompts
Compare and contrast the
gender roles and behaviors of a
female protagonist in a classic fairy
tale with a female protagonist in a
modern retelling of a fairy tale.
DECIPHERING AND
U N D E R S TA N D I N G
Locating the Prompt
Analyzing the Prompt
FINDING THE PROMPT
Intro
Thought Provoking Questions
Actual Essay Prompt
Requirements/Tips
Logistics
In class for the next few weeks, we are going to be discussing rhetorical analysis and
advertising. Advertisements often reflect and perpetuate a shared cultural knowledge and
use our own desires and insecurities to persuade us. For this essay I am asking you to do
two things: pick two advertisements (print or commercial) that use the same emotional
appeal among those listed in the essay “Advertising’s Fifteen Basic Appeals” and analyze
and evaluate the strategies used to convey this appeal and any other rhetorical strategies
used to persuade consumers. In analyzing visual texts you will need to deconstruct the
advertisement and look at color, style, text, composition, and context (societal, political,
and cultural). You must use the readings that we’ve gone over in class as your sources.
You must quote from these sources and provide a works cited page and in-text citation.
 MLA Format
 Typed/ Double-spaced
 12-point Times New Roman font
 4-complete pages (no large font or extra spacing)
 Works Cited page
None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. We got here because somebody - a parent, a teacher, an
Ivy League crony or a few nuns - bent down and helped us pick up our boots. -Thurgood Marshall
This administration and these folk who run Washington are no more interested in our welfare and our wellbeing than the man on the
moon. And we have got to start taking our destiny into our hands. -Tavis Smiley
Deeply embedded in our national consciousness is the idea that those who are accomplished achieved
their success through hard work and perseverance, while those who fell short did so simply because of
their unwillingness to work and strive. However, some argue that many of those who achieved success
did so through advantage and privilege. This debate is founded on two divergent definitions of America:
a meritocracy, in which everyone can achieve or a non-egalitarian society, in which opportunity is
afforded the few. This has led to the longest running debate in American history: collective
responsibility versus individual responsibility. What do we do with those in our population unable to
help themselves? Or are those needing aid simply indolent and lazy? Should we have safety nets in place
to help those that fall between the cracks? Or are those people simply allowing themselves to fall
because they know these social safety nets will save them? Locate ten sources dealing with this issue of
collective responsibility versus individual responsibility. You must include five sources supporting the
need for social welfare programs and five opposed. You may use two articles we’ve read in class. Write a
detailed annotated bibliography entry for all nine sources.
ANALYZING THE PROMPTS
Verbs
Subject/Topic
Critical Lens
Essay Type
VERBS
Analyze
Consider
Compare/Contrast
Demonstrate
Evaluate
Develop
Research
Illustrate
Define
Summarize
Explain
Prove
CRITICAL LENS
Like a camera or a pair of glasses, the critical lens is
what we must look through when we investigate,
analyze, research, or evaluate a subject. It informs
the writer about what to focus on and determines
how we must consider the text.
ESSAY TYPE
 Rhetorical Analysis
 Narrative
 Argumentative/Persuasive
 Reflection
 Research
 Textual Analysis
VERB S /S UB JEC T / LEN S / T Y P E
Choose an American stereotype or cultural
myth and analyze one or more popular cultural
texts that reinforces it.
Choose an American stereotype or cultural
myth and compare and contrast a popular culture
text that perpetuates it with one that subverts it.
VERB S /S UB JEC T / LEN S / T Y P E
According to Peter Hutchings in his book The Horror Film, movie monsters are
“expressions of or [are] metaphors for socially specific fears and anxieties” and
“help audiences (and perhaps filmmakers as well) to engage with and come to
terms with these fears” (37). Explain this idea in depth and analyze the
portrayal of a movie monster as representative of the culture’s anxieties, fears,
or concerns when the book, television show, or movie was released. You will
need at least two secondary sources for this essay. You may use an essay we’ve
read in class for one of your secondary sources. You must use MLA format to
document your sources.
FINDING THE PROMPT
Intro
Thought Provoking Questions
Actual Essay Prompt
Requirements/Tips
Logistics
ANALYZING THE PROMPT
Verbs
Subject/Topic
Critical Lens
Essay Type