Description, Analysis, Evaluation
This assignment is meant to get you back in the writing and critical reading modes. For this essay, please find an editorial or political cartoon that you will then describe, compositionally analyze, and rhetorically/ critically evaluate.
After you find your cartoon, you are asked to compose three non-sequential 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.
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–not even to the level of a single word. 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), you may/should use description, but do not evaluate–not even to the level of a single word. 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 use description and analysis in the process of evaluation. Your evaluation should focus on the effectiveness/ ineffectiveness and/ or the persuasiveness / unpersuasiveness of the cartoons argument and why, which will be based on your analysis.
Each paragraph should be roughly the same length.
Each topic sentence (that is, the first sentence of each paragraph) should be roughly the same, each paragraph starting your reading and assessment of the cartoon anew.
Use two pieces of evidence from the image/ text (caption or in-image text) for each paragraph
You may use the same two pieces of evidence for each paragraph. Repetition across the paragraphs is probable and not problematic.
For visual separation, insert a line or a series of asterisks between the paragraphs: see example.
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.”
