Diagnostic Essay Assignment

Your first full-fledged paper assignment is a 2-4 page (double-spaced) paper analyzing the rhetoric of a single image. You must use the vocabulary established by Roland Barthes, in your analysis, but you are also encouraged to use the ideas and expressions of the other writers we’ve read. The paper needs to be a minimum of two complete pages, and should reflect your very best writing abilities. You may choose any image, including (for the case of this paper only) an advertisement. If you choose an ad, you may want to pay extra attention to those points Barthes made about how advertising images are distinct from other images. I will be looking closely at the four following things in evaluating this and all of your papers:

1) Your ability to form a thesis and properly “defend” it, through clear, argumentative writing;

2) Your ability to move beyond description and into the realm of interpretation, when writing about an image;

3) Your ability to effectively synthesize and apply what you’ve learned in the assigned readings and your own research to your argument. This means properly citing references, of course. It also means not simply bouncing between quotes from authors and your own ideas, but incorporating their arguments into your own analysis. Your papers will then entail close reading of our texts as well as close reading of images;

4) Your ability to tailor your essay (your topic, your thesis, and your ancillary arguments) to the theme of the class. In this case, you will want to discuss the relationship(s) between words and images, in your paper. As I said in class, you may choose an image which contains no proper words, but which still employs a “visual language,” or has some other special relationship to language—as we’ve seen that all images do. You will want your interpretation to revolve, at least to some extent, around interpreting this relationship;

These abilities will be fine-tuned throughout the semester and are crucial to successful writing in any class, not just an Art History class...

Some very important reminders: The paper is due in class, at the beginning of class, on Tuesday, September 13. Please do give your paper a title, put your name on it, and number and staple the pages. I look forward to reading these!