In this in-class activity, students exercise their skills identifying ethos, pathos, and logos in combination with close viewing and analysis of a short film clip. Using a combination of freewriting and class discussion allows students to come to conclusions about the use of rhetorical appeals in argument.
Students are already consumers of film media, and typically have well-developed instincts about what cues in film mean. They do not, however, typically have awareness that they are processing these cues in specific ways, nor do they have the language to talk about them. In an exercise to prepare them for their visual analysis paper and to begin to discuss the “breaking down” stage of analysis, students will apply the process of analysis to viewing a scene.
Though students often utilize platforms of visual rhetoric, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, they do not usually think of these "genres" as deliberate choices of self-representation. By considering the audience and purpose of various Facebook profiles, students will analyze the rhetorical choices made by the account owner--and consider their own self-representation.