Paper 3: Political Analysis

The last writing assignment involves demonstrating your understanding of how political parties try to sway voters into supporting them by applying course concepts concerning not only race and gender, but also ideas about the American Dream and political theory. For this paper, you will select four campaign commercials (two from a democratic candidate and two from a republican candidate) from the current election year to analyze for political messages (i.e., we should be afraid of X; women or minorities are disadvantaged by X and we wish to change it; big business needs to get out of politics; etc.) You can use ads from the primary or the current general election ads.

Analyze every part of the commercial. What kind of imagery do they use? How do they construct their argument? Who are they talking to? What hidden rhetoric is found in the commercial (i.e., if they try to argue for keeping Citizen’s United in place, how do they try to appeal to those it disadvantages)? How do they label their opponent? Or do they even address them at all? Who is doing the “speaking”? Is it average people or the politician themselves? Or is it someone showing snippets of their opponent saying something that could harm their campaign?

3-4 pages.

WRITING TIPS

• Write in formal academic narrative form (i.e. use full sentences and paragraphs). Do not use bullet points.
• Writing matters. Proofread and edit to ensure your message is clearly conveyed throughout the paper. Spellcheck is your friend.
• Do not include contractions in formal class papers (e.g., use “do not” NOT “don’t”).
• Make sure that the sections of your paper flow to make one coherent paper.
• Keep the reader in mind when you write. Your paper should be easily accessible.
• Use topic sentences (aka “focus sentences”) to begin each paragraph. Every paragraph should include a topic sentence that identifies the main idea of the paragraph. A topic sentence also states the point the writer wishes to make about that subject. The supporting details in the paragraph will develop, explain, or support the topic sentence.
• A folder containing writing resources is available in the “Writing Resources” section of our course webpage.

make me sound educated but not tooo smart lol!