Part I: Group Project

20-25 minute in-class Oral Presentation

by groups to "teach" a topic related to how propaganda works.

Part II: Essay #3

4-6 Pages

MLA Style for Documentation

Observe all formatting requirements (in syllabus)

• 12-Step
• Consider WASPS as you prewrite and write
• summarize, paraphrase, and quote effectively
• Explain your quotations thoroughly
• Title your essay
• Choose a clear organizational strategy (escape 5-paragraph prison)
• Define key terms (such as, “propaganda” and “critical thinking”)
• Write clear, unified, and coherent paragraphs
• Use clear transitions
• Use MLA style correctly
• Focus your sentences
• Avoid the abuse of the passive voice
• Avoid the 2nd Person address to refer to your audience
• Double-space,
• Slay all fragments and comma splices
• Use images if you choose

What to Do

Part I
Collaborating with the groups formed in class, you will choose from among the propaganda topics presented to you in class and will subsequently receive a excerpt from Pratkanis and Aronson’s The Age of Propaganda that explains the topic. (I will distribute these as handouts in class.) Your group will be responsible for making sense of the topic and then seeking out examples from current politics, news media, and commercial advertising that illustrate it.

Once your group has gathered its resources, you will need (as a group) to devise a way of teaching the topic to the class during a 20-25 minute oral presentation that, to the degree possible, allows equal participation of the individual group members. You are strongly suggested to use visuals, including “quoting” from short film clips, using a Powerpoint presentation, or creating a poster.

For each example of propaganda that you analyze, be certain to explain both the rational argument that is NOT being made (or that is being de-emphasized or disguised) and the propagandistic one that the audience is given. For example, in the Hollister clip shown in class featuring an attractive couple playing on a sunny day at the beach, the advertisers imply the claim that clothes with the Hollister brand are in some way associated with the feelings inspired by the models, the music, the story, and other elements of the video. In other words, you should buy Hollister clothes (claim) NOT because they are affordable, well made, interestingly styled, innovative, or functional (rational argument to which there are as many counter-arguments) BUT because they will make you feel the way you might if you were at leisure, healthy, fit, traditionally attractive, white, wealthy, young, unmarried, sexually active, socially well adjusted, etc.(propagandistic argument). This is clearly a distraction from any rational argument for why you should invest in these clothes and not in those from some other manufacturer even if they might be better.

Your purpose will be to get the members of the class, your audience, to gain a clear understanding of your assigned topic (from the handout), AND suggest how, in your view, they should respond to other attempts at this kind of persuasion they might encounter. Presentations should be engaging, informative, well organized, and coherent. You should allot time for a question and answer period.

(As part of your collaborative process, you may want to set up a blog specific to this project for easy communication, coordination, and in depth development of your ideas and how you will as a group present them to the class.)

How to Write the Essay

Part II

Your third essay for this course will be a written paper of 4-6 pages in length that is parallel to Part I of this project, although it will develop one of the topics presented by other students in class and NOT the same topic your group presented on in class. (I will provide the appropriate handout describing your topic once you have chosen.)

In the essay, you will provide a general introduction to how propaganda functions in our society and world, and then focus on the particular topic you have chosen to explain. In the body of your work you will analyze how the particular type of propaganda functions in several examples and then conclude by showing how one can defend against this particular subversion to critical thinking.

*Note: Simply describing the propaganda is not enough.  You MUST analyze the piece, showing how the designers of the example of propaganda use this particular technique to achieve their aim by distorting or otherwise interfering with the clear and reliable transmission of information to the audience.

You will need to:

assert a strong, specific thesis
use PIE paragraphing

Provide strong analysis of each example
cite all sources using MLA style.
quote accurately and provide sufficient context for quotations
cite any paraphrasing you might do
develop an outline in advance of writing your first draft
provide a bibliography

Except when absolutely necessary you won't need to use the first-person "I" or second=person "you" in this paper

You may wish to:
provide visual illustrations (though not as substitute for specific written description of the evidence)