Textual Analysis Assignment

Due Date

You should aim to visit your mural by October 27th. We will workshop after that.

What We’re Writing

So far this semester, you have been practicing the skills of summary and analysis, using persuasive techniques and also relying on your own narratives and lived experiences. For this next assignment, you will step outside your own experience and analyze a text that you will have to become familiar with. 

This essay is a thesis-driven analysis of a visual text: a mural of your choice. Each of you will visit several murals highlighted by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, choose one of those murals on which to focus your analysis, and then argue what the message of your chosen mural is. You must physically visit your mural. You will use evidence from the mural (color palette, facial expressions and body language of any people who are depicted, texture of the paint, location, etc.) to argue what you think the mural is saying. 

Your essay should include an introduction, a thesis, close reading of your feature to provide evidence for your claim, and a conclusion that “expands” your topic rather than shuts it down (sometimes we refer to this as the “so what?” of an essay). If you’d like, you can think of this essay as a profile of a place. Often, journalists will profile significant spaces in a city by explaining why they are important—giving them meaning within the context of the city. You can do the same. What role does your mural play in the larger persona or character of the neighborhood in which it is situated? 

Purpose

This essay will give you some more practice with summary, analysis, and reflection. It also acquaints you with the city that you live in and gets you into the routine of “reading” the world around you, not just blithely letting it pass you by. Seeing the world like a writer or a researcher allows you to see it differently, more specifically—sharper. Put on this hat for a change and see what you can notice that you wouldn’t normally see. 

Audience

All of us; all writing is up for peer review.

Specifics

Times New Roman 12, double-spaced, font size 12. 1000-1500 words.