Length/Format/Design: 1,500 word academic paper with an abstract, MLA Works Cited page
Overview: Writers often use more than text to persuade an audience. Writers convey opinions by combining visual and auditory information to reach their audience. For instance, when a candidate appears in a political advertisement, he or she must also consider the background, clothes, music, and setting rather than simply the published words on a page. By using an array of rhetorical techniques, such as visual imagery, sound, costume, and voice inflection, writers can tailor their arguments towards a specific audience with greater precision, more dramatically affect their audience’s perceptions, and move those audiences towards action more readily.
In the twenty first century, video games have especially increased a writer’s ability to present text in new ways, and a critical audience should be able to analyze the strategies video game creators use when interlacing movement, sound, and gaming for a purpose.
Research and locate two video games that interest you from the list below. These video games should be similar in tone or subject manner. Analyze these games in order to make an evaluative argument regarding
1) what is the message the video game is trying to portray
2) how effective are the video game creators in portraying their message.
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Monday, September 1, 2008
Project 1: How Do Arguments Work? (Rhetorically Analyzing Video Games)
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Consider the following questions when evaluating these video games :
• What do the video games look like? What can you do in this video game? How does one video game look different from another? Describe in enough detail that your reader can picture it, but be careful not to turn this into a descriptive essay—this is an analytical essay, and analysis should be the focus of your writing.
• Who is the intended or “target” audience/How do you know? What has the game creator assumed about the audience? What type of action does the creator of the game want you to do after you are done playing the game?
• What claims are the video games making and are they the same claims? Is the claim implicit or explicit or are both claims represented? (implicit = not told outright, explicit = told in the text).
• Are there any possible opposing opinions to the claim that the virtual video game is making? Do the “villains” or “adversaries” in the game have alternative viewpoints that are relevant or reliable? Does the virtual video game address any of those positions?
• How does the video game employ logos, ethos, pathos? What methods do they use (pictures, streaming video, interviews, citing sources, exciting movement, links)? Is the video game claim logically developed and backed up with strong, reliable evidence?
• Think of how you will conclude this essay. Could you offer an argument about the nature of video game culture? About the nature of using video games to show something other than entertainment? About the repercussions of video games in general?
Genre:
A rhetorical analysis of an video game arguing a particular point or value examines the devices that the writer uses to persuade the reader to view an aspect of an idea in altered or new ways.
Purpose:
• foster an understanding of the rhetorical mechanisms of a visual, professional and academic argument
• think critically about arguments
• evaluate and catalog sources, integrating research into an analysis
• compare and contrast writing techniques of different authors, and
• create a complex thesis that synthesizes both analysis and comparison without just writing a review
Audience:
Academic audience.
Voice, Tone, or Persona:
Academic, informed, analytical voice. Avoid colloquialisms, contractions and personal pronouns.
Week 1
Introduction to Class
The History of communication and rhetoric
Week 2
Advergames, Serious Games, and Persuasive Games
How to write about Rhetoric and what is a Thesis Statement?
Week 3
Talking About Games (Reviews vs. Analysis)
Compare and Contrasting Rhetoric through Writing
Week 4
Close Readings of Video Games
First Draft Instructor Review and Peer Review
Week 5: Paper is Due in the First 5 Minutes of Class
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