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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nI\u2019ll be looking at your topics today and tomorrow, so watch for my comments, and if I suggest you choose a different ad, do so. Too often students choose ads that make their job harder. Usually these ads are too simple: there aren\u2019t enough elements in the ad for an analysis of three to five pages. Your ad should have a good variety of elements (images, text, infographics, etc).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You\u2019ll start your paper with an introduction. An introduction establishes your paper\u2019s purpose. In other words, it prepares readers to read your text by establishing your text’s intentions. Since your purpose is to analyze the argument in a magazine ad, there are several ways you might organize your introduction. You might start by discussing advertising in general and then lead the discussion to your thesis (we\u2019ll discuss this in the next paragraph). Or you might discuss the specific product or type of product and how they\u2019re advertised. For example, if I were writing about the McDonald\u2019s ad, I might discuss what fast food advertising is like now and then discuss how the ad shows fast food advertising in the past. Once you\u2019ve established that you\u2019re discussing advertising, introduce the specific ad you\u2019re analyzing and name the magazine that published it.\u00a0 This will lead to your paper\u2019s thesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Many students are intimidated by the idea of a thesis. They shouldn\u2019t be. You shouldn\u2019t be. A thesis is just the purpose of what you\u2019re writing.\u00a0 For this assignment it might look something like, \u201cAfter analyzing its elements, I find the McDonald\u2019s ad makes a strong argument for parents to give themselves a break.\u201d Or, \u201cThis State Farm ad seems strong at first, but it lacks evidence and seems to manipulate its audience.\u201d Your thesis, then, is a statement about the quality of your advertisement\u2019s argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The body of your paper should be multiple paragraphs performing the analysis. How do you analyze? Describe a part of the advertisement and then explain how it works for the audience. Here\u2019s an example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This ad has a large image of McDonald\u2019s food in the middle of the page. There\u2019s a carton of fries, a Coke, a shake, an apple-pie, a Filet O\u2019Fish, and a Big Mac. While the images are illustrations and not photographs, they do look like the actual food a person would get from McDonald\u2019s. The fry carton and the drink cups all have the golden arches logo that represent the McDonald\u2019s brand. This reinforces that McDonald\u2019s is a trusted brand and that readers should know what to expect. Additionally, the food appeals to the audience because it looks like the food served in the restaurants. The images provide credibility to readers and offer a logos appeal because they look like McDonald\u2019s food.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The body of your paper should cover EVERY detail in the advertisement in an organized manner. One way to do this is by the prominence of the ad\u2019s elements. This means you would start with the largest, most striking features of the ad and analyze each detail finishing with the minor details. Another way to organize your body paragraphs is spatially\u2014start at the top of the ad and then move to the bottom, covering all the elements in order. Each body paragraph should start with a sentence that signals the element being discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll sometimes hear instructors mention \u201ctopic sentences.\u201d A topic sentence is just the first sentence of a paragraph. Topic sentences are important because they signal a paragraph\u2019s purpose AND they can place the paragraph in the paper. If you see the sentence, \u201cThe first thing a reader notices when viewing this ad is . . .\u201d you\u2019ll know that it\u2019s probably the first body paragraph. So good topic sentences can keep the paper focused on its purpose and strengthen its organization. Focus on creating strong topic sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For your paper\u2019s conclusion, you should remind the reader of your thesis: what is the overall strength of the ad? Why do you think so? What has your analysis taught you about advertising or the arguments used in advertising?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, as you\u2019re drafting the paper, RELAX. The only thing that really matters about your initial draft is that you\u2019ve made an attempt. In writing instruction, there\u2019s a famous article that reminds us that it\u2019s okay to have a \u201cshitty first draft.\u201d Just do the best that you\u2019re able to, even if that\u2019s not the best possible. You\u2019ll spend next week revising your draft. We\u2019ll discuss it in our conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As always, email me with any questions or if you\u2019re having any difficulties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You may be thinking, \u201cWTF, we have a paper due already?!?!\u201d That\u2019s understandable. However, you can do this. I used to have the first Writing Project due later in the semester, but I then found the final two projects, which are more difficult, didn\u2019t have enough time. Plus, this is a good test: I can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-course-info","category-writing-process"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsaphara.com\/jcsupueblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsaphara.com\/jcsupueblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsaphara.com\/jcsupueblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsaphara.com\/jcsupueblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsaphara.com\/jcsupueblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jsaphara.com\/jcsupueblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200,"href":"https:\/\/jsaphara.com\/jcsupueblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jsaphara.com\/jcsupueblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsaphara.com\/jcsupueblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jsaphara.com\/jcsupueblo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jsaphara.com\/jcsupueblo\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/housewive-Cminus.jpg\")