Teaching Artifacts

Rhetorical Analysis of Film Promotional Materials Assignment and Rubrics

Rhetorical Analysis Description

Students can choose between two project options to analyze film promotional materials through a rhetorical lens. The first option asks them to analyze visual rhetoric in the form of movie posters. The second option asks them to analyze multimodal rhetoric in the form of a movie trailer. They must consider the rhetorical appeals, practice multiple layers of audience awareness, and use either one formal layer of visual rhetoric or two modalities (depending on the option they choose) to shape their analysis. They should also turn in a brief reflection on their revision and workshopping/peer-review practices.

Context Statement

This rhetorical analysis assignment is meant to help students further familiarize themselves with the rhetorical situation as it relates to different forms and modalities of communication. It strengthens students' understandings of audience from the previous assignment by adding in multiple layers of audience for students' consideration (the audience of the promotional materials and their own audience as student writers). The scaffolding practices leading up to this assignment allow students to explore the benefits and the limitations of conveying rhetorical messages within each modality, and these practices also demonstrate the prevalence of rhetorical messages within our highly visual, highly digital society.

Rubrics for Rhetorical Analysis Assignment

Below are the two rubrics I have created for this assignment. 

The single-point rubric is introduced early to familiarize students with grading criteria and expectations of a passing or target-meeting paper. The use of this rubric format keeps students from being overwhelmed, and it promotes a warm and collaborative environment by lending itself to peer review activities.

The analytic rubric is introduced after students are more comfortable with the target requirements. This rubric is mainly for my evaluative purposes.