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Analysis and interpretation at this level involves much more close reading of an act than students are accustomed to do: This activity predictably invites comments about “over-reading” and questions about whether all of this was consciously intended by the agents involved—to which my reply is, no, probably not, but you can see that these meanings are present anyway. And then the application to writing: writers, too, create their texts like this photograph, in the middle of already on-going communications in rhetorical contexts. Noticing some of what is going on even in such an ordinary, every-day level as a newspaper photograph is a necessary first step; and noticing what is going on with their own phrases drawn from others’ discourse and recycled as we all do when we create what are supposedly our own texts is an important part of moving their own thoughts and ideas into relation with public discourse.
These ideas work across genres, as illustrated by the banner ad below.
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Burke's terms can be constricted or expanded. For example, the stage here can be the scene represented by the photograph or the photograph plus words; or it can include the mode of delivery, a pop-up ad, either as a virtual text or as present on a specific computer screen.
After these demonstrations, I have them work in groups using Burke’s pentad terms as a heuristic for discussion of some print ads (generally several such, which are then projected onto a screen for discussion).
A sample of such an ad:
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Again, they work with elements, which in this case involve highly stylized, non-naturalistic use of color. Weblog posts in this case draw from class discussion, but add the element of audience response: how are we as audience members addressed as we look at this image? What role is inscribed in the image? How and why might we read against that inscribed role to take our own response. This converts the discussion of act from the creation of the image to the contexts in which we see it, and invites us to move purpose from moving product to understanding one aspect of a visually oriented culture. A stress on audience participation is crucial to seeing “reading the culture” as more than just a spectator sport: in many ways, through ordinary quotidian acts, we create culture around ourselves, out of the flotsam and jetsam provided to us, reorienting it to our own purposes.