Lesson 8 Prompts: Graphic Chart Analysis and Thesis Exercises.

The prompts addressed in this post are:

Read any article pertaining to your research topic that contains a visual element (a graphic). Explain why the visual is effective or ineffective in swaying  your view on the topic. Make it interesting for the reader who does not already know your thesis.

Is your thesis weak? Hacker can help you figure out what is wrong with your thesis. Is it too broad or too narrow in focus? is it grounded or too speculative to be researched? For practice recognizing good thesis statements, go to http://www.dianahacker.com...

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For my article pertaining to my research topic and containing a visual element, I read an article about the International Criminal Court's unequal geographic representation in its Assembly of States Parties. The ASP, or Assembly, consists of one representative from each member of the ICC, and any alternates or advisors granted to that representative by their own country. Each representative in the ASP gets one vote. The article detailed the geographic representation of the ASP, pointing out that 57.2% of the ASP is comprised of representatives from the Western European and Others Group (WEOG), a regional group in the United Nations. This is compared to the representation of Africa in the ASP, 12.9%, when in fact most of the ICCs efforts have been (and still are) in Africa.

In order to clarify their point, the site (www.ICCnow.org), illustrated a bar graph comparing the geographic representation of the ASP (click here to view the article and the corresponding graphic. The chart I reference in this post is the first in the article). Throwing lots of numbers and statistics in writing at an audience can be daunting. If I tell you that the geographic representation of the ASP is uneven, because 57.2% are WEOG, 7.3% East Europe, 12.9% Africa, 15.6% are GRULAC, and 7.1% are Asia, does the unequal representation argument really hit home? Perhaps for those of you that are numbers people, it does. For the rest of us, the graphic representation of those numbers is very helpful and much more dramatic. Seeing the graphic next to the numbers in this article made me understand very clearly the argument ICCNow is making. It took visually comparing the tall bar to the shorter bar for me to be clear on what the inequalities were.

Is your thesis weak? Hacker can help you figure out what is wrong with your thesis. Is it too broad or too narrow in focus? is it grounded or too speculative to be researched? For practice recognizing good thesis statements, go to http://www.dianahacker.com...

I went online to dianahacker.com and did the 10 thesis statement exercises. While many of the questions were intuitive, I did get a clear picture of what a concise, clear, and pointed thesis statement should be. I believe that my thesis (the United States should not become a member of the Rome Statute's International Criminal Court) is still strong. It is concise, clear, and has a definite view from the start. I may add some more information and make the thesis slightly more specific, possibly providing three brief reasons why the U.S. shouldn't join within that sentence.

My score was10/10: 100%.

Lesson 6 Prompts: Graphic Argument Analysis

The prompts for this blog were:

On your blog, respond to either photo of President Bush on p. 145 of Writing Arguments by telling what the argument is. Write a thesis statement for the photograph's argument. How did you figure out the claim being made? 

Find another graphic, commercial, or video to analyze. Report on the argument being made. Attach a copy of the graphic element or explain how to find or view the graphic. Write a strong thesis statement for this argument.

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Analysis of Figure 9.2 on page 145 of Writing Arguments, by Ramage et al. 

Caption of photo: President Bush clearing brush from Texas ranch.

Thesis: President Bush is a hardworking, strong, and dutiful person, just like all Americans. 

This photograph emphasizes the non-presidential side of George Bush. It depicts him hard at work hauling brush from a ranch, while wearing typical Western work clothes: white cowboy hat, sunglasses, grungy shirt and pants, an work cloves. The photoshoot seems to try and connect Bush with the everyday working person by 'saying': President Bush works just as hard as you do! It is easy to picture any American in place of Bush in this picture, which works well for the argument being made. 

I arrived at my thesis for the picture by studying all the elements and undertones of it, many of which are mentioned in the above paragraph. I asked myself the questions: what is Bush doing in the picture? Why would he do this for a photoshoot? What about this picture can citizens relate to? Why would citizens instantly make a connection between Bush and themselves because of this picture? Why does the press, or the Bush Administration want people to be able to relate to Bush? Using those questions and the answers I came up with, which were made obvious by the picture/caption, and a bit of knowlede about arguments, I discovered the argument being made and the thesis. 

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Links to two references for the add analyzed in this blog:

Billboard version: [link]

Print version: [link]

Thesis: Converse All Star shoes make you look alternative, popular, and artistic.

Argument being made: this add for Converse All Star shoes uses its models and message to reach its target audience. The models are all alternative and wildly popular musical artists, especially with those who follow rock and alternative music, which are the largest music genres aside from pop. All three artists have a global and humanitarian message which Converse uses to its benefit by using the slogan “three artists, one song.” Converse is trying to convey the message to people that wearing converse shoes is popular and alternative, and many world-changing musician and artists wear them. By wearing Converse shoes, you are part of a large, humanitarian, alternative, and artist group of people.

The add has mainly been printed in music and pop culture magazines, such as Blender and Rolling Stone so the target  audience is people who are interested in music and probably know each of the three artists featured in the add. Converse is counting on their audience to be familiar with the artists in order to have a convincing argument towards buying their shoes. 

-Ace