I don’t know how to handle this English question and need guidance.
The articles in this unit by Obama, DeBrabander and Stern all pose arguments surrounding climate change and the importance of bringing awareness to it. We have learned the rhetorical appeals, and you are now tracking them down in these articles. To deepen your understanding of rhetoric, it is also helpful to actually apply and deploy the appeals yourselves as well.
Using the website Canva.com, you will create a visual argument in your group, a public service announcement (PSA) poster, that focuses on raising awareness about climate change. You can also use the articles we have read to inform or inspire your work. You must employ strategies of ethos, pathos and logos in the poster, and you must cite credible sources for your information.
Tips for the Canva Poster:
Sub topics of climate change to consider focusing in on:
• Weather changes/weather-related disasters
• Animal endangerment/extinction
• Carbon emissions/oil use
• Food and its relationship to climate change
• Greenhouse effect Questions to consider:
• Who will the audience of your poster be? Students? People at the mall? People at the bus stop? You must have a specific audience.
• What will the call to action and argument of your poster be? You must have a call to action.
• How will you get creative? What images might you use? What text might you use?
Make sure your poster:
• has a clear message/argument
• incorporates clear rhetorical strategies
• is colorful and thoughtfully designed
• includes more than one image (these can be images off Canva, Google, or images your group has taken)
• catches the viewer’s eye
• is proofread
• includes citations if any facts or statistics are included to build your ethos
Consider starting with a hand drawn sketch, and play around with your many design options on Canva.
5 Tips for Collaborating:
1. Please create one Canva log in using one person’s email address and make up a group password. Make sure everyone writes down the information.
2. You will have a few hours to work on this in class, but the rest must be done outside of class. I highly encourage your group to set up one more meeting outside of class if possible. A great place to hold a meeting is in a study room at the library, which you can book at the front desk.
3. Please exchange your contact information (email addresses or whatever the best form of communication is for the group). No one is required to share their cell phone numbers.
4. Please be a reliable and hardworking group member. This means committing to specific tasks, completing those tasks thoughtfully, and responding promptly to group communication (within 24 hours on weekdays).
5. Everyone in the group must contribute to the art and to the presentation. Although this is a group project, students will be graded individually. In some cases, there may be people in the group who earn different grades. It all depends on each person’s contributions and the presentation. If you have a group member who is not putting in equal effort or communicating in a timely manner, please inform me of this immediately so I can reach out to them.
Presentation Guidelines:
* Download your final graphic as a “PDF standard” on Canva.com (see top right “arrow” download button) and submit to Canvas by the deadline on Thursday, 3/19 by 9AM.
* The presentations will be 3-5 minutes per group and occur on Thursday, 3/19.
During the presentation, please answer the following:
• How did you come up with your PSA poster idea on climate change?
• Who is your target audience?
• What is the argument and purpose of your graphic?
• What rhetorical appeals did you demonstrate? And in what ways?
• Why did your group choose those specific images, colors, layout, data, quotes, etc.?
• How did this assignment help deepen your understanding of the unit readings?
