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Persuasive project (35%)

Instructions

Drawing on our learning from across the course, create a compelling piece of persuasive communication with a coherent persuasive appeal based in the clear application of logos, ethos, and/or pathos. Write a critical reflection on your persuasive project, providing the background to your work and outlining how you went about crafting your persuasive appeal. This includes being clear about the intended outcome you are pursuing, your target audience, and your choices for the design and composition of your persuasive message. Finally, briefly reflect on any ethical issues you considered while working on your project.

What you need to do:

1. Choose ONE of the following options and create your project artefact:

a) Create an advertisement aimed at promoting a specific product or service of your choice, which you should clearly identify. Your advertisement must use a combination of static images and text, and it should be appropriate for the brand you have chosen to work with.

b) Create a poster for a government/public sector agency information campaign. You can be creative about your choice, for example you could work on a campaign for road safety, awareness of online harms for youth, health promotion, promoting NZ businesses or tourism etc. Your poster must use a combination of static images and text, and it should be appropriate for the agency and campaign you have chosen to work with.

c) Choose a non-governmental or civil society organisation working towards a form of social change. For example, The Salvation Army and its campaign to address poverty. Create a poster to support the campaign for change. Your poster must use a combination of static images and text, and it should be appropriate for the organisation and campaign you have chosen to work with.

d) Choose an example of a public communicator that you are familiar with (for example, a politician, an activist, a businessperson, a media personality or commentator etc). Write an 800-word persuasive speech that is appropriate for your chosen person, who should be a contemporary (not historical) figure. You can be creative here, but your speech should clearly develop an appropriate persuasive appeal. For example, you could choose Chloe Swarbrick as the Green Party Co-leader, and you could craft a speech for her addressing the general public, trying to convince New Zealanders that we need new regulations to protect our coastline from plastic pollution. You can, if you wish, use the following annotations in the script of your speech:

Bold type to indicate words that you would like the speaker to emphasise or speak more loudly, e.g. we must act now.

[….] Ellipses to indicate where you would require the speaker to pause.

Speed instructions like [slow down] or [accelerate] can be included to control the pacing of the speech.

You can use instructions for gestures like [wave to the audience] or [extend hand] or [throws arms wide]. These can be included to coordinate physical movements with verbal delivery.

2. Write a 1,000-word critical reflection on your creative project. Your reflection should briefly describe the background and context of your project and then discuss how you went about crafting your persuasive appeal. You should discuss your intended outcome, your target audience, and how your project artefact (ad, poster or speech) is designed to use rhetoric to achieve your intended outcome. You should draw clearly on the theory of rhetoric, identifying which of the three main modes of persuasion (or combination of modes) you chose to use: logos, ethos, and/or pathos. You should outline how you went about employing these modes in your project using the concepts, terms and strategies covered on the course (e.g. visual metaphor, graphic language or images, specific argumentative warrants, calls to action, and so on). You should be clear about your intended outcome and how your project is designed to achieve it.

3. Write a 400-word critical reflection that briefly outlines the ethical issues you considered while creating your project and how you delt with them. You can be creative and wide ranging in your thinking here. For example, you can discuss your design choices and/or choice of persuasive appeal, you might consider the particular needs and/or vulnerabilities of your audience, you might refer to current controversies or issues that impact what you felt you could ethically communicate, or you can include a consideration of any strategies that you feel would have been persuasive, but that you chose not to use because you would consider them unethical.

Please note:

a) For the two written parts of your assignment, word count can be +/- 10% without penalty. This allowance also applies if you choose to craft a written speech.

b) There is no need to reference material for this practically orientated assignment, but you can do so in your written work if you feel it helps you make your points. However, your application of key terms and concepts should demonstrate that you have a sound understanding of what they mean, whether or not you include references.

c) If choosing one of the first three options, your creative work does not need to be "professionally" executed. The emphasis is on coming up with a compelling creative concept with a well-considered persuasive appeal. You should think carefully about your design choices, the specific content you include, and consider issues of composition like the use of colour, typography, and layout. You can choose to use an AI image generator for all or part of your ad or poster design. Photoshop (please see point "e" below) includes image generation functions, and you should have access to Microsoft Copilot as part of your enrolment at Auckland. However, if you choose to use AI you MUST disclose this as part of your critical reflection, which should include a discussion of how you used it to achieve your design choices (e.g. the prompts you chose to use and why, and how you may have edited or refined the image). Using AI to create a "polished" image does NOT guarantee a better mark or a passing grade (this will be discussed fully in class in week 10).

d) The use of generative AI for all or part of your written work (critical reflection, ethical reflection, speech) is strictly NOT permitted.

e) For this assignment, access to the Mac lab (201-330) has been arranged from Week 11 forward. The room is unlocked during the day on weekdays, and swipe access is available between 8am and 11pm on weekdays and 8:30am to 7pm on weekends. The only exception is if a class is scheduled in the lab. If you are asked to leave, please do so. The machines in the lab will provide you with access to the Creative Cloud package, which includes applications like Photoshop. You will need to log in with your Auckland student email account.

f) Senior technician Tim Signal will be available in your tutorials in Weeks 11 and 12 to provide technical advice on image design for options 1-3, including advising on the possible use of AI. It is strongly suggested that you attend, especially if you are choosing one of these options.

You will be graded on:

a) Your creation of a compelling creative project artefact (ad, poster or speech) that demonstrates your ability to pursue a persuasive outcome through a coherent persuasive appeal based in a clear application of Logos, Ethos, and/or Pathos.

b) Your critical reflection on your work. This should provide a sound contextual background and context, identify your persuasive appeal, and demonstrate an understanding of appropriate course concepts, terms and strategies.

c) Your brief reflection on the ethical issues that you considered.

d) The clarity of your writing style and presentation of your written work.