Day 5: Dove Ads

The Dove article that you read for last night, "Fat is an Advertising Issue," always rings true with a lot of students.  Body image issues run deep with guys and girls.  And a large part of that issue is a rhetorical perspective that we are given by various media.  Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty offers girls a fresh and healthy look at this issue, and I am so thankful for it.  I've known many dear friends that have struggled with body image issues.  You probably know someone who has struggled with them as well.  Here are some of the videos that were developed from the campaign that the article discusses.  In class, we often discuss what's going on rhetorically and visually for them to make their argument.  Think about those things as you watch them.  How do they use music?  How do they use text?  What about pathos?  What is the logos, or the logic, of these arguments?  Who is their audience?  Who is the persona that's crafted in each?  What's effective?  What's ineffective?  You can ask all these same questions, and answer them, in your papers that you're working on!


But first, sit back and watch:


"Evolution"

"Onslaught"

"Amy"

When you write, you should strive to make it powerful every time, just as these arguments above are powerful.  One way to do that is to make it personal as the videos have done.  Did you like the ads, or did you feel manipulated?  It's a tricky issue with rhetoric.  They're using some strong pathos throughout.  But how do they execute it?  What makes something emotional?  


Along with adding something personal or unique, it's time for you to move beyond the five paragraph essay.  You can do five paragraphs in two pages, which is all that's due tomorrow.  But the traditional approach isn't going to cut it if your paper has to be 8 pages.  (Good editing tip: if you look down the left margin of your paper and don't see any indentations, you might have too long of a paragraph).  


Your introduction can be fun and interesting.  Think about the way the essay from last night introduced it's topic. It wasn't lame or boring.  It was natural and interesting.  Aim for that.  Put in some interesting fact, make a joke, create a beautiful metaphor.  (You remember what metaphors are, right?)  Then, finally, in the conclusion, you finally get to say everything you've been trying to say the whole paper very plainly and matter-of-factly.  People worry about conclusions, but they're just closing up and recapping.  You've taken such effort to say your argument throughout your paper by using examples and whatnot, but in the conclusion you can just state it straight-out.  Conclusions are your friends.


There is a writer that I like, named Anne Lamott.  She says that writers should take a step and be comfortable writing a "shitty first draft" (her words, not mine! but good advice nonetheless).  This is what she writes in her book, Bird by Bird:

“For me and most of the other writers I know, writing is not rapturous.  In fact, the only way I can get anything written at all is to write really, really shitty first drafts.

“The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later.  You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page.  If one of the characters wants to say, “Well, so what, Mr. Poopy Pants?,” you let her.  No one is going to see it.  If the kid wants to get into really sentimental, weepy, emotional territory, you let him.

“Just get it all down on paper, because there may be something great in those six crazy pages that you would never have gotten to by more rational, grown-up means.  There may be something in the very last line of the very last paragraph on page six that you just love, that is so beautiful or wild that you now know what you’re supposed to be writing about, more or less, or in what direction you might go — but there was no way to get to this without first getting through the first five and a half pages.”

So, there you go.  Good luck as you start.  Some of you have started.  That's good.  Others...

Just write.  Writing takes time, but you can do it.  You just need to get your behind in chair at your computer with Microsoft Word open, and then start to play in there.  Have fun.  I know that it's like me asking you to step off of the edge of a cliff, but what else are you going to do?  Hang around on boring dry land?  

Your Daily Assignment:


I was going to have you respond to the Dove ads, but I've decided to give you more time with your papers, so just get started on those.  Finish those first drafts.  2 pages done by tomorrow.  I'll give you until midnight instead of noon tomorrow to finish the first drafts.  I want you to really think about them.  Just e-mail them to me!


Wait a minute!!!  Tomorrow is the 4th of July!!!  That means no class.  So you have until Thursday the 5th at midnight.  An extra day!  But don't write tomorrow night... go shoot of some fireworks or something.  But be careful!  And I'll be back in The States tomorrow, which is a good thing as far as this class goes.  All right.  Good luck as you write!  Meet back here on Thursday morning.




Grammar Review:


Check out The Oatmeal on how to use a semicolon; it's funny!