This analysis assignment (minimum 800 words, posted on your website) challenges you to capture what makes a particular multimodal digital text effective or interesting in some way. Our thinking on “multimodal texts” could go in a few directions. You could focus on something related to social media: a specific social media account, a specific post or collection of posts, a specific hashtag/meme/challenge, etc., or a specific social media platform (perhaps comparing multiple texts or platforms). You could look at some sort of A/V text: a video, television show or movie, image or collection of images, etc. You could analyze a website, blog, or a site focusing on news, culture, politics, etc. You can potentially look at a non-digital text, but if you are interested in doing this, please run your idea by me first. Although your analysis will mainly be comprised of words, your post should include at least one link and at least one piece of embedded content (image, video, social media post, etc.).
Regardless of the multimodal text you consider, we are working toward what Writer/Designer calls a “rhetorical analysis.” For this assignment, we will focus on doing a formal analysis of the text, and an upcoming assignment will allow us to extend our analysis to considerations of audience and context. Here are the prompts you should address:
- What is the main purpose of the text? What does the writer/designer of the text hope to accomplish through their work?
- What specific details or aspects of the text help it accomplish its purpose or otherwise have this effect? How does the text incorporate different modes, media, and design choices (emphasis, contrast, color, organization, alignment)? How does it take advantage of the affordances of these modes, media, and design choices? Identify specific details and explain what makes them significant and how they contribute to the larger purpose.
- Offer your thoughts on what makes the text interesting, effective, or relevant in some way. This is an opportunity to offer a larger argument on why you think this text is worth analyzing.
Matt King 