COMM B4 Chapter Projects
Please single-space the analysis and/or explanations in your weekly projects. Labels in the projects can be handwritten but analysis and explanations MUST BE TYPED. ALL ANALYSIS SHOULD BE 100-200 WORDS.
Chapter 1. Persuasion in Today’s Changing World
See sample handed out on day 1.
Chapter 6. Tools for Analyzing Language and Other Persuasive Symbols
Choose a jingle or chorus from a song that often gets stuck in your head. Write down the lyrics and label the elements from Chapter 6 that you think make this jingle or chorus so “sticky”. In 100-200 words discuss these elements and the song’s “sticky” factor.
Chapter 7. Psychological or Process Premises: The Tools of Motivation and Emotion
Think about a friend or relative who you’ve “agreed to disagree” with on a sticky subject. Draw a cartoon (stick figures are fine) that shows you employing cognitive dissonance to persuade your friend or relative about this issue. Then explain, in 100-200 words, the choices you made in employing your cognitive dissonance strategy. This might not work in real life but, you’ll never know if you don’t try it!
Chapter 12. Becoming a Persuader
Put a picture of yourself on the page and include descriptive terms that express the way you want your audience to feel about you as a persuasive speaker. Using the tips in Chapter 12 as your guide, develop a list of goals to help you become the speaker you describe above (100-200 words).
Chapter 10. Nonverbal Messages in Persuasion
Have someone take a picture of you in the place you most identify as “your space”—this might be your bedroom, your car, your home office, etc… label the elements from Chapter 10 that are evident in the picture (eg…facial expression, bodily communication, proxemics, physical appearance, artifacts, gender differences, dress, blocking or inviting). Discuss each element and what you think viewers might assume about you based on the nonverbal communication in the picture (100-200 words)
NO CHAPTER 3 PROJECT—ENJOY!!!!
Chapter 14. The Use of Persuasive Premises in Advertising
Look through your favorite magazine and find an ad that is particularly appealing to you. Copy the ad or cut it out of the magazine and put it on the page. Assume you are a marketing guru and you are showing the client (the makers of the product) why this ad will appeal to the target audience. Label all of the persuasive elements from Chapter 14 that apply and in 100-200 words, using evidence from this chapter as proof, convince the client that this ad will work.
Chapter 13. Modern Media and Persuasion
Choose an internet news site or cable news station/show and monitor their news (on-line read a few days of articles, cable news station/show monitor a few days of newscasts). From what you have seen how might their choices persuade listeners or readers? Place an ICON of the news source in the center of the page and label all of the persuasive elements from Chapter 13 that apply to the news source. In 100-200 words discuss the elements and why they are persuasive.
Chapter 9. Cultural Premises in Persuasion
Place a picture of your favorite movie on the page (with the title). Label the cultural premises discussed in Chapter 9 that are most apparent in the movie. In 100-200 words discuss these cultural premises and why you think they are appealing to you.
Chapter 11. The Persuasive Campaign or Movement
Use the Yale 5 stage developmental model to illustrate the success or failure of one of the following persuasive campaigns: American Idol, thetruth.com, Above the Influence, Dove real beauty, A drop of Dawn makes a difference, Jack Links Beef Jerky Sasquatch Campaign or Miller Lite Man Law Campaign. Label all five elements and discuss, in 100-200 words (using evidence from the chapter), why the campaign succeeds or fails.
Chapter 5. The Making, Use and Misuse of Symbols
In the middle of the page choose one of the following words to write: LOVE, FRIENDSHIP, TRUST, FREEDOM. On one side draw your map of the concept, on the other draw the territory. In 100-200 words contrast the map with the territory.
Chapter 4. Social Scientific Approaches to Persuasion
Design an ad for your favorite product using one of the approaches discussed in Chapter 4 to guide your choices. Label the elements of the approach. In 100-200 words discuss how the approach operates in your ad.
Chapter 8. Content or Logical Premises in Persuasion
Read several days of letters to the editor in the Bakersfield Californian (available for free on their website). Choose and copy one letter that has the greatest number of reasoning fallacies and one that has the best reasoning. Place both on the page. Label the fallacies as well as the best reasoning and discuss each (100-200 words)
Chapter 2. Persepctives on Ethics in Persuasion
Place an iconic picture on the page that best represents the ethical standards by which you live your life. On the left side of the page write in the ethical perspective found on pages 32-37 that is most similar to your own standards and on the right side write in the perspective that is the least similar. In 100-200 words discuss why these are the most and least similar to you.