Communication, writing copy for a series of flyers, Metaphor and Consumerism in Mass Media

You are an intern at Miami University, and your boss has asked you to assist with writing copy for a series of flyers that would be sent to a variety of audiences to help boost campus admission visits for the upcoming school year.
Your task is to write copy for three different flyers:
• Parents of high school seniors
• Seniors in high schools in the state of Ohio who are in the top 25 percent of their class academically
• Student athletes nationwide who are in their junior year of high school
These will only be one-page flyers, so copy should be concise and highlight points of interest that make the most sense for each audience. Each flyer’s word count should be under 250 words, and the tone and content should be customized for each flyer. If you create flyers, you should upload pdf versions for grading.
Tips:
• Keep in mind length – you cannot put every good thing about Miami in this letter!
• Think specifically about each of the three audiences – what information will pique their interest and be important to them?
• Tone should also be custom – talking to a parent is different than talking to a student. But, remember, you are still representing Miami University so it should be a tone that makes sense for the university.
• Include a call to action – what do you want them to do?

***this paper needs you to find an Advertising picture (you’d better find a picture with metaphor, which will be easily analyzed) and analyze different elements of it.

*** Also, I need one-paged outlie and notes of this paper. So the research paper will be 11 pages in total.

***I will provide the PPT for what elements should be mentioned in the paper. For example, multimodality, ethos, pathos, etc.

 

WR 150-Metaphor and Consumerism in Mass Media

Fall 2018

Purpose           This assignment gives you the opportunity to develop your own research question about

how metaphor is used to promote consumerism in mass media by looking at a particular advertisement or advertisement campaign.  In this assignment, you will showcase all of the skills you’ve been working on in the WR100/150 sequence relating to research, critical analysis and synthesis of multiple sources, as you develop and revise your own analysis about how metaphor effectively in specific contexts.

 

In devising your topic, think about previous papers from other classes, the course texts, and issues and arguments that have interested you, in addition to any other links to other courses you’ve taken, writing or non-writing courses. In this assignment, you are called upon to deploy all of the skills that we have been honing this semester to be able to explore how metaphor works visually in advertising: rhetoric and rhetorical appeals in multimodality, design principles; how metaphors employ framing via Conceptual Metaphor Theory; In this paper, you will learn to put together an effective research and analysis strategy by producing a research prospectus/proposal that contains an annotated bibliography of the sources that you think will help you launch your analysis. effective research, argument, critical analysis, rhetorical and metaphor analysis, synthesis of multiple sources and viewpoints, and revision.

 

 

Prospectus     1. Write a paragraph that summarizes your prospective topic, methodology, and

& Annotated  argument. So, you’ll need to 1) state your topic, 2) present your primary research

Bibliography questions or hypotheses (since you may not have come to any conclusions yet), 3)

indicate how you intend to demonstrate your claim/thesis. You might consider the following questions to help you here: Do my sources constitute a valid body of evidence for the argument I am trying to make? How do my sources support my prospective argument? How do my sources fit together? (150-300 words)

 

2. Do some preliminary research and identify and annotate at least five promising sources. You should provide a bibliographic entry (as it would appear on the Works Cited page) followed by a summary and some indication of how the source relates to your topic. See sample annotation below. Though I’m not requiring it, this is a useful exercise for all sources. You may want to use RefWorks. (100-200 words each)

 

The Prospectus & Annotated Bibliography is due on the day after presentations finish to allow you time to incorporate ideas from other classmates’ presentations.

 

Presentation    The oral presentation of your research proposal/prospectus is an opportunity for you to share your working thesis and main ideas concerning how metaphor works in your ad(s). It’s an opportunity to present your working thesis and receive feedback both before you hand in your final prospectus/proposal and before you begin writing.  Make a multimodal presentation using Power Point or another system to show us your ad(s). You will have a total of 13 minutes, for both your presentation and the ensuing Q&A. Plan to allot no more than 9 minutes for presenting your working thesis and one or two critical ideas. Ideally, you will teach us something. Feel free to refer to notes, but try not to read from a script. Handouts can be useful (but aren’t required). The presentations themselves will happen on 10/12, 10/15, 10/17.

Notes  As you research, be sure to keep careful notes that differentiate your ideas from

those of other people. This is the best way to avoid inadvertent plagiarism. See Turabian, chapters 9-10. You should also keep copies of your outlines and drafts, as these may be useful in compiling the Final Portfolio. This is relevant for the section of the paper dedicated to related research.

Reflection        In an appendix, I’d like you to briefly (~250 words) reflect on 1) what generated your initial interest in the topic, 2) how the process of researching clarified or transformed your ideas or direction, 3) the choices you made regarding the structure of your paper, and 4) how you acknowledged and responded to opposing viewpoints in your research process, and those from your peer reviewers. Feel free to mention anything else that you had trouble with or feel really good about.

 

Specifics                     

• The paper’s length is 10-12 pages (~2500-3000 words).
• It should engage with and relate to a considerable number and range of sources (at least 4—documentaries don’t count as sources, although they should be included in your Works Cited page).
• More than half of your sources should be scholarly. Part of this paper’s grade will be determined by the quality (scope and depth) of its research.
• Your analysis of the ad (the body paragraphs) need to be guided by a topic sentence that supports your paper’s main thesis about how metaphor is used effectively.
• Keep track of every source that might have bearing on your paper. As we will review, you might make reference to these sources in a content note, which will necessitate that you include them in your Works Cited page, even if you don’t directly quote them.
• Revise for grammar and mechanics. Careless errors will detract points.
• While we will continue to review style and grammar in the coming weeks, if grammar has been a consistent problem for you, consider scheduling a tutoring appointment at the CAS Writing Center. Sign up early; they fill up fast.
• Post every part of this process on Digication, even if I don’t ask you to. You might even start to annotate some of these artifacts for inclusion in your final portfolio.
• Grading is based on Mechanics and formatting (10%), use of evidence (20%), thesis (20%), analysis (30%) and argumentation (20%)

Checklist         Did I…?

• Title my essay?
• Use 11 or 12 point Times New Roman font?
• Use in-text citations and include Works Cited?
• Post word count at the bottom of the last paragraph?
• Save my paper using the proper naming convention?
• Upload it to my e-portfolio?

1. 1. Hook mechanism to interest reader; relate it to
   2. General theme or topic of your paper + why should we waste our time with this topic?
   3. Introduction of ad or short ad campaign (as example)
   4. Significance of ad or campaign (what makes it a representative or significant example?) $$$.
   5. Research Question: How is visual metaphor used to make it an effective ad?
   6. Specific Claim/Thesis: How metaphor used to make the campaign effective.

 

1. Analysis of theme:

How does the ad or campaign link their product, brand and service in our minds to the fulfillment basic human yearnings, fulfillment, purpose and/or happiness? What are the themes that are used to accomplish this (i.e., prestige, relationships, health, etc.)? How can the ad’s visual argumentation be understood in terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of Needs?

 

• Related Research:

What have others said (research) that are relevant or can be related to your topic? How can their ideas be used to give background information about your topic? How can their ideas be used to justify the importance of your topic? How can their ideas be used to support your thesis? Maybe they have talked about the same idea but in other types of advertising, or a related idea in the same genre of advertising. In any case, you make the connections and argue the value and relevance to your topic and thesis.

 

1. Rhetorical Situation:
   1. Audience
   2. Purpose
   3. Context

 

1. Metaphor:
   1. Target Domain
   2. Source domain
   3. Entailments

 

• Modes & Design choices
  1. Linguistic
  2. Visual
     1. Emphasis
     2. Contrast

• Color

1. Aural
2. Gestural
3. Spatial
   1. Organization
   2. Alignment

 

1. Rhetorical Appeals:
   1. Ethos
   2. Pathos
   3. Logos

 

1. Conclusion:

Recapitulate the main ideas of your paper, revisiting the initial logic you introduced in the introduction. Address the hook mechanism in some way to give closure (if you asked a question, give some sort of response, or a more evolved question based on the results of your research). This means going back and addressing your topic—how visual metaphor connects with the fulfillment of basic human yearnings for purpose, fulfillment and happiness, how this is accomplished thematically—its importance, your research question, and what your findings contribute to what people have already said about the topic. Finish strong.