PROJECT 2: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS ESSAY
Purpose: Technology and culture has a unique relationship. There are some technological artifacts which are relevant to some cultures and totally irrelevant to others. A tanning machine useful to a white person is not relevant to the life of an African or Indian person. In this assignment, you will look at websites to discover these culture specificities. How are some websites created in a certain way to cater to a very specific audience?
Description: For this project, you’ll uncover a great deal of information about a website (selection criteria will be included in the detailed instructions).
Choose a commercial, educational, political website or blog that you think is reflective of a specific cultural/ national identity. Your job will be to explore what is its purpose, what is its argument, who is its audience, and then figure out how well it achieves its purpose for its intended audience using its current design, layout, and form. You will evaluate its overall usability in terms of how well it meets its users and designers needs. The deliverable will be a 3 to 4 page formal report, so the organization and information you should include will be explicit.
You will be performing a rhetorical analysis, a design analysis, a genre analysis/evaluation, and an investigation of the digital context in which the website exists in relation to your culture.
Digital Document Design Analysis
Design Analysis
Formal features
Use of images
Font choice, colors used
Layout
Navigational features
Rhetorical Analysis
Audience
Purpose
Arrangement
Context Analysis
Links from the blog to other sites
Who links to the blog
Connection to other people or activities (journalism, law, academic, etc)
Placement of the blog within an activity system
Formal Reporting
Once you have collected information and performed your analyses, you will need to write the report. Most of the content of this report will come from the two sub-reports already written by you. In the formal report include a title, your name, and the date. Divide the report into sections and provide headings and subheadings.
Use bulleted lists where appropriate
For this report, consider some of these points:
1. Begin by explaining the purpose of the report (Introduction)
2. Identify the site you are analyzing and provide a description of it
3. Analyses: for each of the following sections, start with a brief description of your methods (how you performed your analyses, what kind of research processes you used) and then provide the results.
a. Write a section (with a heading) that addresses your rhetorical analyses of the genre.
b. a section for your design analyses (CRAP , color, font, graphics). You may want to use subheadings.
c. Write a section about the digital context–the genre and activity system(s) of the document
4. Write a conclusion/final section describing what you learned from doing these analyses.
Comments on the following:
Mode, Audience, Purpose, Situation
Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity
Use of Color, Use of Fonts, Use of Icons, Graphics, and other design elements
What are the culture-specific elements that are evident?
What are the culture-specific elements that are subtle?
What can you find out about the author?
GRADING RUBRIC
CATEGORY 4 3 2 1
Introduction The introduction is inviting, states the main topic and previews the structure of the paper. The introduction clearly states the main topic and previews the structure of the paper, but is not particularly inviting to the reader. The introduction states the main topic, but does not adequately preview the structure of the paper nor is it particularly inviting to the reader. There is no clear introduction of the main topic or structure of the paper.
Support for Topic Relevant, telling, quality details give the reader important information that goes beyond the obvious or predictable. Supporting details and information are relevant, but one key issue or portion of the analysis is unsupported. Supporting details and information are relevant, but several key issues or portions of the analysis are unsupported. Supporting details and information are typically unclear or not related to the topic.
Focus on Topic and Response to the Theme There is one clear, well-focused topic. Main idea stands out and is supported by detailed information. Main idea is clear but the supporting information is general. Main idea is somewhat clear but there is a need for more supporting information. The main idea is not clear. There is a seemingly random collection of information.
Organization The pacing is well-controlled. The writer knows when to slow down and elaborate, and when to pick up the pace and move on.
Details are placed in a logical order and the way they are presented effectively keeps the interest of the reader. The pacing is generally well-controlled but the writer occasionally does not elaborate enough.
Details are placed in a logical order, but the way in which they are presented/introduced sometimes makes the writing less interesting. The pacing is generally well-controlled but the writer sometimes repeats the same point over and over, or spends too much time on details that don’t matter.
Some details are not in a logical or expected order, and this distracts the reader. The pacing often feels awkward to the reader. The writer elaborates when there is little need, or leaves out necessary supporting information. Many details are not in a logical or expected order. There is little sense that the writing is organized.
Rubric adapted from http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/staff/DavidMayden/doc/Q4/Literary%
20Analysis%20Rubric.doc