How to Write an Advertisement Analysis Essay

Writing Project #3: An Advertising Analysis
Value: 20% of grade
Due: Rough draft (to Blackboard plus a hard copy for class): Wed. 29 March
Intermediate draft (required): Wed. 5 April
Final draft (optional): If you choose, you may submit a revised final draft of Writing Project 3 one week after you get the graded intermediate draft back. If you are satisfied with the grade on the intermediate draft, do nothing and the grade will be your final grade. Revising does not guarantee you will get a better grade. Your grade will only improve if the revisions are substantial. Changing a few commas or rewording a few sentences is unlikely to change your grade.
Length: At least 1250 words
The Assignment
This assignment asks you to create an analysis of two magazine advertisements. Your analysis will be heavily informed by what might be called a “mentor text” – a text that helps guide you, a text that provides a framework for understanding something. In this case, your mentor text will be a video called “Killing Us Softly 4,” which was created by a well-known and well-respected media scholar named Jean Kilbourne.
In the video, which we will watch in class that is also available via Blackboard (under “Writing Projects”), Kilbourne analyzes the portrayal of men and women in contemporary advertising. Your goal for Project #3 will be to apply some of her ideas to two magazine advertisements of your own – two advertisements that you'll find yourself. You'll need to focus in on a few of Kilbourne's ideas and write about how those ideas do or do not hold true for your particular advertisements.
Your main job in your paper will be to:
• Assert a thesis. In one or two sentences, explain your overall analysis of the images portrayed in your ads. In other words, make a point about how the ads you've chosen relate to one or more of Kilbourne's ideas. Your thesis may also forecast the main ideas that you'll discuss in the body of your paper.
• Describe the ads. Describe the verbal and visual elements of your ads in detail, so that people reading your paper can picture the ads in their minds even if they do not have access to the printed ads.
• Analyze the ads. Provide a series of well-developed paragraphs in which you discuss the images that your ads portray. Analyze the visual and verbal elements of the ads, and show how one ad relates to the other. Be sure to give examples from the ads to illustrate your main idea (thesis), and be sure to incorporate references to the “Killing Us Softly 4” video. Use those references to support your own analysis.
In choosing your ads, you can use magazines that you own, or you can use a search engine to find ads. The two ads that you choose should have something in common, so that you have some grounds for comparison. For instance, you might choose two ads that sell the same basic product, but that target men and women differently (example: a Nike ad in a woman's magazine like Cosmo and a Nike ad in a men's magazine like GQ). You might also take an historical approach, using the internet to locate ads for similar products from different decades.
Audience
Think of your audience for this paper as your classmates and instructor within the academic context of our course.
Evidence / Documentation
For this assignment, you'll need to include a Works Cited page (MLA format) that documents the ads you'll analyze in your paper, as well as the video you'll refer to in your paper. We will discuss how to do this in class.
Evaluation
In evaluating your project, I'll consider the criteria on the ENGL 1100 grading rubric. I'll be looking especially at how well you:
• Pose an interesting main idea and support it throughout the paper with specific examples drawn from the ads you've chosen to analyze
• Hold your audience's interest and help them gain insights into the language/images of the ads you've chosen
• Incorporate basic concepts from assigned readings and videotape viewings into your analysis
• Document your ads and the Kilbourne video
• Organize and design your analysis
• Achieve clarity in terms of style, sentence structure, mechanics, punctuation, etc.
Notes on Grading
I make deductions when you don't follow the directions. The deductions include, but are not limited to, the following:
Failing to follow directions -5
 If you use more or fewer than two ads or don't refer to Kilbourne's work, for example, that shows inattention to the instructions.
Doing outside research -5
 You may only use the ads and the video for this assignment. No outside research is permitted.
Writing less than requirement -5 per 100 words short
Missing rough draft -5
 Writing is a process. Failing to submit a rough draft ignores the process.
Missing works cited page -10
 The works cited page must be turned in with the rest of the project. I will not accept it late.