https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/stop-deforestation/infographic-whats-driving-deforestation
Carefully examine your artifact through close reading and careful notetaking. To do this:
Describe the artifact. Summarize its elements, the modes used, and its affordances.
Analyze the artifact (observe and consider its elements). Consider all of the following and any important
element not listed here:
Claim (major idea and the way it leads you to see or understand the artifact and its context)
Support (evidence and reasons offered for the claim)
Rhetorical Situation (purpose, audience, author, context)
in support of a way of seeing or understanding the artifact or part of its context), support (the evidence and
reasons offered for those claims)
How It’s Made (structure, organization, emphasis, contrast, color, alignment, proximity)
Evaluate the artifact (how effectively does it reach its intended audience?) Explain this with specific reference
to specific elements of the artifact.
The Results
- Your first goal is to accumulate your ideas through the process described above. Don’t over-focus on the
final product as you go through this process of amassing description, analysis, and evaluation of your artifact.
It’s okay if you produce a lot of notes that don’t yet look like an essay during the process described above. - Your second goal is to arrange your ideas into a coherent, organized, clear essay that makes an argument
about your artifact. This essay should do the following, in this order:
Introduce the artifact in a clear, unbiased description to orient your readers to the gist of what the artifact looks
like and the claim it is trying to make. (Example: Using simple images and text boxes, the infographic “Help
Your Trees Survive the Drought” by the California Urban Forests Council explains how and when to water
different kinds of trees. The infographic makes the claim that there are many benefits to homeowners and the
environment when trees are kept alive and water is used judiciously.)
Present a clearly stated thesis. The thesis should explain the claim and support the artifact offers and the
support it uses for that claim—in other words, the artifact’s argument. You are making an argument about the
effectiveness of the artifact’s argument. (Example: “Help Your Trees Survive the Drought” effectively informs its
audience about how to maintain trees during drought and emphasizes the environmental and monetary value
of doing so.”)
Show and tell the reader what leads you to believe that you have correctly identified the specific elements of
the artifact and correctly understood the argument it is trying to make. Consider what could have been stronger
and how. Be sure to support your thesis with specific evidence throughout the essay. Specifically:
What is the central topic of this artifact?
What is the main claim or thesis?
What is the structure of this text? How is it organized? What images show up where? Where are there vectors?
Colors? Signs? Signals? What about what shows up in the foreground? What’s in the background? Consider
all the elements you took notes about during the process of accumulating ideas.
What is the purpose of this artifact?
Who is the intended audience for whom this text was composed? Think about the tone, complexity of the
language used, and the intelligibility of the arguments.
What is the tone like? Why does it seem this way?
How is the claim supported? What kinds of evidence does the author use to support his/her claims?
What is the cultural context of this artifact? *Cultural context is a way of asking who is affected by the ideas and
who stands to lose or gain if the ideas take place. When you think about this, think of all kinds of social and
cultural variables, including age, gender, occupation, education, race, ethnicity, religion, economic status, and
so forth.
Has anything been left out? If yes, was this accidental? Intentional?
Is the argument intelligible? Is it relevant, reasonable, and clear? Is the author objective? Biased?
Reasonable? (Note that the author might just as easily be subjective, unbiased, and unreasonable! Every type
of composition and tone can be used for a specific purpose. By identifying these techniques and considering
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why the author is using them, you begin to understand more about the text.)
How effective is the visual argument? Consider support, tone, organization. Is it confusing? Will all audiences
accept it the same way?
The Rules
Follow directions.
Use the required MLA document format. See the policy document, LMs, Required Essay Format document,
and The Chemeketa Handbook’s MLA section. Be mindful of font, font size, spacing, and layout.
Cite every source from which you use an idea or information. Use signal phrases, the sandwich method, ITCs,
and a Works Cited page. Plagiarism will result in a grade of zero for the assignment.
You can use sources from class readings and materials in addition to other sources you may find on your own
for this essay, but this essay requires you to think through this question for yourself. You can’t find out what you
think using Google! Don’t “compost” by finding discussions of this artifact stuffing them all into your essay;
explain your evaluation according to YOU and use the best, most effective, most reasonable evidence and
critical thinking you can muster.
