Item #6: The Current Advertisment

COMMUNICATION CHANNEL: The Current, the student-run newspaper at NSU, Volume 20, Issue 21 edition, dated February 9, 2010.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: The Current serves the NSU community which includes faculty, staff, and students. However, this advertisment is geared toward students and people who wish to become students.

I find it interesting that Barry University buys advertising space in NSU's newspaper. Since NSU also has a law school, it's obvious that Barry isn't a silent competitor.

This advertisement fits perfectly with Stephen Toulmin's model about the basic parts of logical arguments that we encounter in everyday life (Larson, 2010). In this model, there are three basic parts: the claim, the data (also evidence), and the warrant (Larson, 2010). The three secondary elements are qualifiers, reservation (also rebuttal), and the backing (Larson, 2010).

"The claim is the proposition or premise that the persuader hopes will be believed, adopted, or followed by the audience" (Larson, 2010, p. 225). The Claim is that the faculty of Barry's law school is student-focused.

The evidence supports the claim (Larson, 2010). The Evidence is that Patrick E. Tolan, Jr. is a law professor at Barry. Evidence is also found in his quotation.

The warrant is the reasoning behind the evidence (Larson, 2010). The Warrant is that Tolan encourages his students to get involved in their communities.

The backing "is the information that establishes the credibility of the reasoning ro connection between data and claim" (Larson, 2010, p. 227). The Backing is that Tolan is a founder and faculty advisor to Barry Law's Volunteer Income Tax Assitance program besides being a law professor at Barry.

The rebuttal "specifies the conditions under which the warrant is valid" (Larson, 2010, p. 226). The Rebuttal is the fact that only one professor is shown. The reader is not told how the other faculty members are student-focused, so we can argue that not all of them are student-focused.

"Qualifiers limit the claim, thus allowing for the possibility that this is not a simple case of the either/or argument" (Larson, 2010, p. 226). The Qualifiers in this advertisement are found at the bottom. The phrases "inimate learning environment" and "dynamic, accessible faculty." Although the phrases "real world experience" and "ABA accredited" can also be called qualifiers, they are not qualifying the central claim.

Item #7: New York Times Advertisement

COMMUNICATION CHANNEL: Newspaper: the business section of the March 4, 2010 edition of the New York Times

INTENDED AUDIENCE: Readers of the business section of the New York Times readers, mainly middle to upper class businesspeople

Note: These are photos of the photocopy of the orginal advertisement. Since the whole advertisement was too long to fit onto one page, I had to distribute it over two pages. The first photo shows the top of the advertisement, and the second photo shows the bottom half.

It persuades readers to open a Chase checking account by using cultural myths, cultural parables, and cultural images.

Larson (2010) states that cultural images and myths are "real or imagined narratives that illustrate a society's values" (p. 254). The cultural myth that this advertisment uses is The Possibility of Success. This myth reflects our hope in the American dream of success. This advertisement promises that opening a Chase account helps you "effectively manage your business."

Robert Reich developed culural parables which teach lessons through "metaphor, (that) may be a basic human trait, a universal characteristic of our intermittently rational, deeply emotional, and meaning-seeking species" (Larson, 2010, p. 241). This advertisement reflects the cultural parable of The Triumphant Individual. The business-owning woman in the advertisement is smart and confident and has most likely overcome great obstacles to get where she is today.

This advertisement uses image to persuade its audience. The two images in this advertisement are expertise and dyanamism. Chase is a well-known bank and therefore has expertise in the area of banking. The woman in the advertisement (who is representing Chase as well as consumers) exhibits dynamism, "the degree to which the audience admires and identifies with the source's attractiveness, power, forcefulness, and energy" (Larson, 2010, p. 248). The consumer is attracted to the woman's power as she stands next to her business's sign.