Rhetorical Analysis Essay Assignment Directions:
Identify a Public Service Announcement (PSA), either in a TV ad form or a print form (it can also be from the Ad Council website), and compose a 3-4-page essay where you write about the specific ways that the PSA ad establishes its credibility/ethos with you (do you see the PSA as credible and why), uses facts/examples/stories/logos to persuade (what are those facts and examples and do they work), and tug at the heart strings of its audience i.e. create emotions/pathos (are there moments in the PSA that creates emotions).
Your thesis statement should specifically illustrate what the PSAs message is and what the PSA uses to be persuasive; in other words, speak to the specific examples of ethos, pathos, and logos (or any other specific rhetorical devices like rhetorical questions etc.) and if these rhetorical devices work to convince you/persuade you of the PSA message.
Some questions that you should answer to help you write your thesis statement and your topic sentences are as follows:
1. Does the PSA have experts as spokespersons featured in the ad to establish its ethos? Or does the PSA talk about the organizations work in the community or mention its history?
2. Does the PSA show any symbols that would create emotions in the audience? If so, what kind of emotions? Or is there a specific scene that make you emotional about the message?
3. Finally, does the PSA use facts, examples, testimonials as evidence to convey its message for logos? If so, talk about what these facts are and state if these facts are convincing or not.
Remember, your thesis should be one sentence, so be creative in how you write it. It should be a specific point on if the PSA is persuasive and how (in terms of its use of ethos, logos, and pathos).
Below is a list of PSA that you can choose to write about for this paper:
1. I Am Enough PSA from The Kindness Campaign and AMC Theatres:
a. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbdLnE8dayU
2. Wishes: A PSA from CA Technologies
a. https://youtu.be/ON6hAudgqMg
3. The Ad Council has many types of PSA videos and print ads that you could select. The following is the Ad Councils page that features all of their PSA campaigns. Once you are on the Ad Councils website, scroll down the page to find a variety of topics that have images. Click the links below the images to be directed to a page that will have a PSA print ad and PSA videos for that specific topic:
a. https://www.adcouncil.org/our-work
Criteria:
3-4-page essay
Select a PSA from the list above.
Write a rhetorical analysis essay on the PSA.
o Make sure to write about how the PSA establishes its credibility/ethos, creates emotions/pathos, and uses facts or examples/logos to persuade the audience of its message. Furthermore, talk about whether you think the PSA is persuasive or not and why.
Be sure to include an introduction that contains the following elements:
o a captivating hook
o a description or summary of the PSA
o the title of the PSA in italics as well as the company or organization that created the PSA
o last sentence that should be an identifiable thesis statement
Include body paragraphs that contain the following elements:
o Topic sentence that begins the paragraph and that talks about the examples where the PSA establishes its credibility (ethos).
By using specific and relevant major supporting details, prove that the PSA uses ethos to demonstrate its overall messagereference any evidence from the PSA such as experts who speak about the issue.
Transition words that create coherence like furthermore, for example, in addition, therefore etc.
Concluding sentence that wraps up the body paragraph
o Topic sentence that begins the paragraph and that talks about the parts of the PSA that create emotions (pathos).
By using specific and relevant major supporting details, prove that the PSA uses pathos to demonstrate its overall messagereference any evidence from the PSA such as emotional scenes from the Ad or symbols/images that would make a personal emotional.
Transition words that create coherence like furthermore, for example, in addition, therefore etc.
Concluding sentence that wraps up the body paragraph
o Topic sentence that begins the paragraph and that talks about facts or examples (logos) the PSA uses to illustrate its message.
By using specific and relevant major supporting details, prove that the PSA uses ethos to demonstrate its overall messagereference any evidence from the PSA such as experts who speak about the issue.
Transition words that create coherence like furthermore, for example, in addition, therefore etc.
Concluding sentence that wraps up the body paragraph
Include a conclusion paragraph.
Include a Works Cited page that references a citation for a video or print ad (see MLA guidelines on how to format based on this specific source).
Include in-text citations for video or print ad (see MLA guidelines on how to format from this specific source) with paraphrases, summaries, and direct quotes in the paper.
Create your page layout based on MLA guidelines (see sample MLA paper layout in the Week 1 folder).
Submit a rough draft to Smarthinking.
Revise, edit, and proofread essay.
Submit final essay by Friday, May 7th by 11:59pm.
This assignment is worth 100 points.
See rubric on the Course Content page.
