Looking closely at an advertisement will demonstrate the difference between Form & Content. Get an ad and make as many observations you can about the ad's content and about its form.
What is the content? The content is the story aspect of the ad.
What story does it tell? How much is shown in the ad, and how much is not shown but implied? How much of the story do the ad makers expect the reader of the ad to supply? What is not shown is often as important as what is shown since if you supply to the story what is not shown, you involve yourself in the ad in a very deep and direct way. And, of course, this is exactly what ad makers want you to do. The more involved you are, the more likely you are to buy the product that is being advertised. However, there is one kind of involvement that will not, necessarily, lead to buying the product -- the involvement of critical reasoning, analysis. In fact, the more critical you are the less likely you are to buy the product because you have more knowledge about how ad makers manipulate people to get them to buy things.
What is the form? The form is how the story gets told.
The form includes the text, the written part, or at least how that text appears -- what shape it takes, where it is located on the ad, the kind of type used, how much of the picture is covered by the text, etc. The form includes how the picture is organized, how the shapes and colors are laid out to get you to respond in predictable ways. Remember: everything in an ad is purposeful. You may not be able to figure out what everything in the ad means, but you know that everything has been well thought out by a team of researchers who get paid very, very well to determine that every detail of the ad leads you to purchase the product being advertised.
Analysis is the process of taking a complex thing apart and looking closely at what those parts might mean individually and in combination. When you put the thing back together it is called synthesis.
Anything can be analyzed, but not everything is worth the effort. A lot of students hate analyzing literature. They say, "Why do we have to analyze this. Why not just enjoy it?" Sometimes analyzing IS enjoying it; sometimes not. That's the way it is with most analyzing. Sometimes it is worth doing, and sometimes not. When we get irritated at someone's analysis it usually means that we don't believe that that particular analysis is worth much.
Some professions are based entirely on analysis; psychiatrists, for example, analyze dreams to try to reveal information that people can use to change their lives. Almost every profession involves analyzing. Try to think of one that doesn't.
Read the two student analysis themes. You will be writing one of your own.
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