Assignment One -- Race, Stereotypes, and Advertising
Purpose: This assignment should help you start thinking about the writing process, which, as we will discuss, includes three important stages: prewriting (particularly for this assignment, we will spend time working on invention techniques), drafting, and revision. We will also cover the concepts of critical thinking and argumentation, discuss the pitfalls of the “five-paragraph essay” format, and determine the qualities of a good thesis statement.
Text: For this paper, you’ll select one or two magazine advertisements that you feel make some use of race. The ads may perpetuate or subvert racial stereotypes, depict racial equality or inequality, or deal with race in some other identifiable manner. You may not write about more than two advertisements. For grounding in the subject matter, also read chapter three, “Mass Communication, Propaganda, and Persuasion”, in Elliot Aronson’s The Social Animal – which is one of your PSYC textbooks
Background: Ideas about race play a part in entertainment, surfacing in every medium. In all aspects of popular culture, different images of racial groups – both positive and negative – abound. What is the significance of this? Is it important – and why or why not? What images do you find in magazine advertising, and how do they affect people? Should or could anything be done, if these images or attitudes are negative?
Writing Task: Search through magazines, looking for advertisements that you believe rely in some way on race. In a 5-6 page, thesis-driven, essay answer the following question:
What is the significance of the images of race in your chosen magazine advertisement(s)?
You must provide each ad or a photocopy of each ad that you discuss in your paper with your final draft.
Some Tips To Help You:
* You could focus on one particular racial group and its portrayal in advertising and search for two ads that have thematic similarities in how they present that group. Or, you could devote the focus of your paper to just one ad, and make strong use of the detail of the ads.
* Consider the source of the advertisement – is the magazine from which you culled the ad directed toward members of a particular race, or toward a racially diverse readership? How might the expected audience for the advertisement make a difference?
* Does the ad use a well-known celebrity or place? What do you know about the person or place in the ad that might have an impact on your discussion of race?
* Think about gender and social status; do these components play a part in the ad? If so, how do they relate to race?
* If your ad depicts persons of more than one race or ethnicity, you’ll want to discuss each one – perhaps discussing how your advertisement handles multi-racial individuals and multi-cultural environments and situations.
* What product or service does the advertisement promote? Does the item advertised relate to a particular race or to particular racial stereotypes, and if so, how?
* Do aspects of the advertisement such as color palette, organization and arrangement, font selection, or lighting contain meaning?
* As always when dealing with sensitive issues, please show respect for and sensitivity towards your subject matter.
Schedule of Important Dates
Monday, January 14 -- Fact/idea list due
Wednesday, January 16 -- Sheridan Baker thesis “machine” due
Monday, January 21 -- No class; Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Wednesday, January 23 -- Rough draft due
Monday, January 28 -- Final draft due (please see course policies handout regarding
proper paper format and penalties for late work)
Links
Writing 140 Homepage
Secrets Main Page
Thesis Statement Suggestions
Email: kathy_strong@hotmail.com
