Each 39A assignment introduces you to at least one new skill used by college-level writers. A big part of your overall success depends on how well you master these new skills. One of the new elements in this assignment is the use of source material. This time you won't just be using your own insights in developing an argument. You'll also be taking advantage of expert testimony.

This assignment calls for you to use "at least one assertion from the assigned readings." A frequently used reading has been "The Rhetoric of Advertising" by Stuart Hirschberg. Hirschberg's essay is important in at least two ways. First, it offers you a valuable insight into how ads generate their appeal. According to Hirschberg, ads work by "tranferring ideas, attributes, or feelings from outside the product onto the product itself." In a sense, ads try to sell you something that you've already bought by attaching their product to some value you already have, perhaps without even being conscious of it. Figuring out what "ideas, attributes, or feelings" your ad refers to and how it uses them to generate a "distinctive image" will help you make interpretative claims. In addition, Hirschberg analyzes a number of images from advertisements in a way that models, in minitiature, what your essay should do.

To review Hirschberg's essay and other assigned readings more closely and qualify for a valuable individual conference, attend a LARC 39A workshop.