The first step in this process will be to choose an image.  Browse the images available through the Gordon Parks Foundation Archives.  The link is available near the end of Unit 3.  Choose an image that you find engaging and that you feel offers ample opportunity for analysis. Some images are interesting, but they’re difficult to talk about.  The image you choose will be the subject of your essay. After you have chosen your image, you should engage in some prewriting activities using the ideas and terms presented in Unit 4.  First, take stock of your initial reactions to the image.  What emotions did you feel as you first looked at the photograph?  What aspects about the image lead viewers to react a certain way? Before you begin writing, you will want to perform some research. This assignment requires at least one source (print or web). If you're choosing an image about the Civil Rights Movement, you might want to research the movement. If you're choosing an image about Flavio in Rio de Janeiro, you might want to research how Gordon Parks met Flavio. You're welcome to use more than one source, but be sure to keep track of the information you gain from your source so that you can cite the source appropriately. Next, analyze the image by looking closely at the content, framing, composition, focus, color, lighting and context.  What interesting or unique features do you notice about the image?  What is the cultural or historical context of the image?  You should record all of these activities. Some of them will become important pieces of your final draft. Next, it will be time to find your focus and begin generating a working thesis statement.  For this assignment, your thesis will make a claim about the  meaning  of the image.  In other words, what message does the image communicate?  Remember, every image tells a story and an image may tell a different story depending on who is looking.  Once you have decided what idea or story the image communicates to you, you will need to explain how content, framing, focus, color, angle and lighting come together to create that story or convey meaning. Your thesis will be more specific if you show which visual elements your essay discusses and what they do to create meaning. So, an example thesis might be something like this: “Through content, framing, and angle, the image demonstrates how segregation affected not only adults but also the children of black families in the South.” After completing the previous steps, it will be time to begin drafting your essay.  The following outline might help you to structure your initial draft. Introduction :  Identify and describe the image. It is so very important that you identify the image very clearly. Use the name of the photographer and the image: for example, you might say, “In Gordon Parks’s photograph titled “American Gothic,” a woman stands in front of a flag with a broom in her hand and a mop in the background.” In the introduction, you might sh.

1. The first step in this process will be to choose an image.
Browse the images available through the Gordon Parks
Foundation Archives. The link is available near the end of Unit
3. Choose an image that you find engaging and that you feel
offers ample opportunity for analysis. Some images are
interesting, but they’re difficult to talk about. The image you
choose will be the subject of your essay.
After you have chosen your image, you should engage in
some prewriting activities using the ideas and terms presented
in Unit 4. First, take stock of your initial reactions to the
image. What emotions did you feel as you first looked at the
photograph? What aspects about the image lead viewers to
react a certain way?
Before you begin writing, you will want to perform some
research. This assignment requires at least one source (print or
web). If you're choosing an image about the Civil Rights
Movement, you might want to research the movement. If you're
choosing an image about Flavio in Rio de Janeiro, you might
want to research how Gordon Parks met Flavio. You're welcome
to use more than one source, but be sure to keep track of the
information you gain from your source so that you can cite the
source appropriately.
Next, analyze the image by looking closely at the content,
framing, composition, focus, color, lighting and context. What
interesting or unique features do you notice about the image?
What is the cultural or historical context of the image? You
should record all of these activities. Some of them will become
important pieces of your final draft.

2. Next, it will be time to find your focus and begin generating a
working thesis statement. For this assignment, your thesis will
make a claim about the
meaning
of the image. In other words, what message does the image
communicate? Remember, every image tells a story and an
image may tell a different story depending on who is looking.
Once you have decided what idea or story the image
communicates to you, you will need to explain how content,
framing, focus, color, angle and lighting come together to create
that story or convey meaning. Your thesis will be more specific
if you show which visual elements your essay discusses and
what they do to create meaning. So, an example thesis might be
something like this: “Through content, framing, and angle, the
image demonstrates how segregation affected not only adults
but also the children of black families in the South.”
After completing the previous steps, it will be time to begin
drafting your essay. The following outline might help you to
structure your initial draft.
Introduction
:
Identify
and describe the image. It is so very important that you identify
the image very clearly. Use the name of the photographer and
the image: for example, you might say, “In Gordon Parks’s
photograph titled “American Gothic,” a woman stands in front
of a flag with a broom in her hand and a mop in the
background.” In the introduction, you might show why the
image is important or relevant or provide some background
information about it
.
Please e
mbed the image into the body of your essay somewhere so that

3. the readers can see it.
One way to embed the image is to put your mouse on the image
and right-click, and then select “copy.” Next, go to your
document and right-click on your document, and then select
“paste.”
Thesis:
Tell your readers what idea or story the image communicates.
Be sure the thesis shows the result of your analysis. (See the
above discussion in #4 under Process for Completion.)
Supporting paragraphs
: Explain how the visual elements come together to create
meaning. In multiple body paragraphs, discuss the effect of
content, framing, composition, color, focus, angle, lighting
and/or context. You should not discuss
every one
of these elements, but you should discuss enough of them so
that your reader understands how the visual elements work
together to create a story and to create meaning. You may have
three or more body paragraphs dedicated to this task. It would
be a good idea to discuss just one or two elements in each
paragraph.
Conclusion:
At a minimum, your conclusion should remind your reader
how the visual elements convey meaning.
Minimum Requirements
The final draft of your essay should be between 600 and 900
words in length (about 2 -3 pages long).

4. The essay should meet the expectation of an academic rhetorical
situation. You will be expected to use formal register English.
Your audience will be a general audience of educated adults.
The image you have chosen as the subject for your essay should
be linked to or embedded in the body of the essay.
The essay should be written in MLA format, with a proper
header, page numbers, title, and font. See the MLA guidelines
in the unit.
The essay should discuss two or more visual elements from the
lessons.
The essay should cite at least one source. The source should be
cited in MLA format, so there should be an in-text citation for
the source and a works cited page. Books, journals, magazines,
and web sources are all acceptable for this assignment, but you
should be sure to consider the reliability of your sources. You
should not use Wikipedia.
http://www.gordonparksfoundation.org/about-gordon-
parks/photography-archive/crime-1957#11