ESSAY 4: ANALYSIS OF VISUAL IMAGES/ADVERTISEMENTS
Choose a print advertisement that addresses your Food or Nutrition Issue which the
Academic Argument Essay will argue.
Write an essay minimum 3 pages following all MLA guidelines. Analyze claims,
evidence, assumptions.
Do not use “I” or “you” – be objective. Refer to “the viewer.”
See the syllabus for submitting Essays.
Submit the advertisement in the folder with the hardcopy of the final draft of the essay.
Submit all prewrite activities. Submit peer reviews. See LBH “Reading and Using Visual
Arguments” (216-277)
A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING IMAGES (ESPECIALLY ADVERTISEMENTS)
(Barnet and Bedau 154).
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Discuss the overall effect of the design? Colorful and busy (suggesting activity)?
Quiet and understated (for instance, chiefly white and grays, with lots of empty
space)? Old fashioned or cutting edge?
What about the image immediately gets your attention? Size? Color? Position on
the page? Beauty of the image? Grotesqueness of the image? Humor?
Who is the intended audience for the image? Consider who the readers are and
where they will see the argument. For example, the ad may have appeared in a
sports and fitness magazine. Affluent young men? Housewives? Children? Retired
persons? Athletes?
What is the argument? What does the advertiser want the audience to do?
Does the text make a rational appeal (logos) (“Tests at a leading university prove
that …,” “If you believe X, you should vote ‘No’ on this referendum”)?
Does the image appeal to the emotions, to dearly held values (pathos)? Examples:
Images of starving children or maltreated animals appeal to our sense of pity;
images of military valor may appeal to our patriotism; images of luxury may appeal
to our envy; images showing partial birth-abortion may seek to shock the audience.
Does the image make an ethical appeal, does it appeal to our character as a good
person? Consider who the advertiser is. Are authorities cited?
Discuss the relation of print to image. Does the image do most of the work, or is its
purpose to catch the viewer’s eye and then lead us to read the text?