English 392B: The Rhetoric of Text and Image

Fall 2001

 

Instructor:   Neil Randall

                   HH 224, ext 3397

                   nrandall@uwaterloo.ca

 

Office times: Tuesday 10:00-1:30

Wednesday 2:00-3:00

 

Class times: 292:    Tuesday 10:00-11:20 (EL 208), Thursday 10:30-12:20 (EL 106)

                   392B: Wednesday 4:00-6:50, AL 211

                   408B:  Tuesday 7:00-9:50, AL 211

                   408C: Tuesday 4:00-6:50, AL 208

 

 

Required Texts:

 

1. Kress, Gunther and Theo van Leeuwen. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. Routledge, 1996 (ISBN 0415106001).

2. Parker, Roger C. Looking Good in Print. 4th ed. Coriolis Group, 1998 (ISBN 1566048567).

3. Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics for Beginners http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html

 

 

Recommended Text

 

Fowler, H. Ramsay, et al. The Little, Brown Handbook. 3rd Canadian edition. Toronto, 2001.

 

 

Schedule

 

Sept 12:  Introductions

Sept 19:  Rhetorical theory and print advertising

Sept 26:  Social semiotic theory and print advertising

Oct 3:  Stillar chpt 1; print advertising analysis and redesign

Oct 10:  Stillar chpt 2; print advertising redesign

Oct 17:  Stillar chpt 2 (cont.); Parker chpt 7-8; television advertising intro

Oct 24:  Stillar chpt 3; television advertising analysis 

Oct 31:  Stillar chpt 3 (cont).; television advertising analysis – Assignment #1 due (40%)

Nov 7:  Stillar chpt 4; radio advertising

Nov 14:  Stillar chpt 4 (cont.); Web advertising

Nov 21:  Stillar (all): Designing Web advertising – Assignment #2 due (40%)

Nov 28:  Group presentations on Web advertising (20%)

Assignments

 

Each assignment is worth one-third of your final grade. Each will be given a mark out of 100; at the end of the course the three grades will be added together and then divided by three to arrive at the final numeric grade.

 

40% - Comparative critique of print advertisements - due Oct 31

 

2500-word essay comparing two print ad campaigns from two competing companies or two organizations with differing viewpoints. Apply theory drawn from Stillar (chpt 1-3) as well as from your existing background in theories of rhetoric and language.

 

40% - Rhetorical/semiotic analysis of television advertisement – due Nov 21

 

2000-word essay analyzing one television advertisement, drawing theory from the whole of the Stillar text, supplemented by at least four readings from academic journals that deal with advertising in the context of the theories outlined in Stillar.

 

20% - Group presentation on designing Web advertisements – held in class Nov 28

 

Each group will design a Web advertisement and present it, complete with rhetorical/semiotic justification, to the rest of the class on November 28.