Professor Mc Dougald, my Visual Rhetoric professor, assigned an essay during the fall semester of 2015 that was designed to analyze the ways in which the visual components of a photograph or an ad convey meaning.  In line with class discussion, the essay was assigned to show that nothing appears in images accidentally.  Everything is rhetorical.

I have placed this essay before Dr. Wharton’s Exposition: History, Theory, and Practice coursework even though I took Visual Rhetoric after ENGL 3090.  The below analysis of Under Armour’s photograph was extensive, and yes, I carried over much of the information that I learned by studying material culture from Dr. Wharton, but because this essay was less extensive than the product from ENGL 3090, I decided to list it first in the navigation menu.

Within it I explain the rhetorical message along with all of the visual elements that make this image effective.  This is a much more advanced level of what I did in ENGL3130, but less polished than what you will see in 3090.  I am no longer writing the standard five-paragraph essay.  Rather, I have made the conscious decision to let one thought build on another.  Once again, we encounter a thorough essay, albeit short in accordance with the instructions, that demonstrates strong critical thinking skills.  I wanted then and now to build this piece out more and to spend more time on the social implications of the photo, a topic that I was barely able to touch upon at the end.