Visual Rhetoric for Student Writers
Purdue University has posted a link that teaches students the importance of visual rhetoric in their writting. I think all students (and even teachers) should check this link out. It has some really good tips, tricks, and pointers. It talks about text elements, the use of color, the use of images, and overall design.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/Visual_Rhetoric.pdf
I found a site where three students did a research project on how the relationship between images and writing has changed. I fond it interesting because I have had an art class and a writing class at the same time. Oddly enough, I could draw whatever I wanted and fit within the parameters of my project, but I could write a poem with meaning to be interpreted for anything. Poetry was never my thing, because my heads more suited for stories, but the fact that I could create visual works that expressed some type of meaning that people could understand easier than I could write a silly poem about happiness was odd.
Here’s the site.
http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/visual/orr_blythman_mullin.cfm
Visual rhetroic is aslo dictated by :”the gaze” which is formed from experience and perspective. Similar to knowing an audience, you should know “the gaze” in which your piece will be looked through. By knowing this you understand the visual literacy you will need to effectiveluy communicate with your perspective audience.
You can check out more about types, styles, and examples of “the gaze” at
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze01.html
When considering the medium of visual rhetoric, one should take into account “the gaze.” This can be shaped by anything from experience to physical ability to see. “The Gaze” is attribute of the audience the writer can use to attract the reader. Also, by understanding “the gaze” you wish to satisfy, you can manipulate the media in anyway to establish a relationship to the reader.
for more on “the gaze” check out
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/gaze/gaze01.html
Jobs involving the use of visual rhetoric
TECHNICAL WRITERS compose communication from product developers for users of the products. Users include consumers as well as scientists, engineers, plant executives, line workers, and production managers. Writers must write in a concise and easy-to-read manner for consumer publications or in highly specialized language for experts. With the increased use of desktop publishing, Technical Writers increasingly are responsible for the publication process including graphics, layout, and document design.
Technical Writers create product instructions, reference and maintenance manuals, articles, project proposals, training materials, technical reports, catalogs, brochures, online documentation and help systems, Web pages, multimedia presentations, parts lists, assembly instructions, and sales promotion materials.
Technical Writers perform the following tasks:
Analyze the needs of the target audience.
Study data and conduct in-depth interviews with subject matter experts to understand the product or procedure.
Index and cross-reference documents such as bulletins and manuals.
Produce or arrange for illustrations, charts, and photographs to be included in publications.
Edit, standardize, or revise material prepared by other writers or personnel.
Prepare layout of material for publication.
Prepare rough drafts of the publication for review with the project staff and/or customers.
Create and edit Web pages for the Internet, intranets, and extranets.
Technical Writers often specialize in a specific industry such as agriculture, health care, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, computers, or manufacturing. Within their chosen industry, many Technical Writers will specialize further. For example, Technical Writers in the computer industry might specialize in software documentation, tutorials, or user manuals.
Technical Writer is the most commonly used job title for this occupation. Other titles used include Medical Writer, Communications Specialist, Policy and Procedure Writer, Proposal Writer, Publications Specialist, Science Writer, Documentation Specialist, Health Writer, Information Developer, Technical Editor, Web Editor, and Information Designer. Some titles indicate the particular industry in which the occupation is found.
this is only part of what I’ve got. we don’t have to use all of this if you guys don’t think it’s relevant, but I thought it was worth mentioning.
History of Visual Rhetoric:
The concept of visual language, using pictures and symbols to express meaning, is older than the written word, and possibly the use of language itself. The earliest Homo sapiens worked with clay to create figurines, usually representative of gods or goddesses. They also made cave art that depicted animals, signs, and symbols. Although the exact purpose of their art is unknown, it is clear that Paleolithic art was more than just decorative, thus making it the beginning of visual communication.
After cave drawings came pictograms and ideograms. Pictograms were drawings that represented a word, such as a drawing of a tree to represent the word “tree.” A combination of two or more pictures to make one word was an ideogram. Drawing pictures to communicate soon became difficult because there were just too many things that needed to be represented to make up a picture for each one. The ancient Sumerians were the first group of people to draw symbols that represented both phonetic sounds and an actual drawing of what they wanted to say. Ancient Egyptians took this idea and created a phonetic alphabet, which was the beginning of written language as we know it.
It’s hard to say exactly when rhetoric actually worked its way into all of this. Obviously all of the pre-historic symbols conveyed meaning, but since we don’t know exactly what that meaning was, we can’t really know whether or not these pictures were meant to persuade or influence the public. We do know, however, that religious art was one of the earliest forms of visual rhetoric that we can identify. Paintings meant to represent religious ideas and illuminated manuscripts date back to AD 400.
Here are some quotes regarding rhetoric–
–Gerard A. Hauser: “Rhetoric is an instrumental use of language. One person engages another person in an exchange of symbols to accomplish some goal. It is not communication for communication’s sake. Rhetoric is communication that attempts to coordinate social action. For this reason, rhetorical communication is explicitly pragmatic. Its goal is to influence human choices on specific matters that require immediate attention.”
I thought this one fitting because talks about using symbols to accomplish goals, which is what visual rhetoric does.
–George Kennedy: Rhetoric in the most general sense may perhaps be identified with the energy inherent in communication: the emotional energy that impels the speaker to speak, the physical energy expanded in the utterance, the energy level coded in the message, and the energy experienced by the recipient in decoding the message.
I thought this was a wonderful quote because you really have to put your energy into something to make it come alive and then the person who views has to use their own energy to dredge some type of meaning out of it.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/rhetoricdefinitions.htm
here’s the rest of the history:
When the printing press was invented by Gutenberg in the 1440s, this created an entire new medium for visual rhetoric. All the spoken rhetoric made popular by Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian could now be written down, printed, and merged with the visual communication of symbols. Both forms of visual rhetoric have continued into the present. Printed books, essays, letters, signs, and anything else you can think of that contains language and can be used to influence or convey an idea is rhetoric. Even the fonts they are printed in send a message. Paintings, drawings, comics, photos, and computer images are forms of rhetoric as well. In the 20th century, using images as propaganda became popular. During World War I, posters were used to encourage enlistment in the army and to sell war bonds. This trend has continued with every war and political movement since then. With the invention of the internet, the use of visual propaganda has soared to a completely different level. There is no limit to what can be projected onto a computer screen and how it can or will be used to influence whoever views it. The interesting thing about visual rhetoric is that, when new forms of visual communication are introduced, the others do not die out. Even though we don’t currently draw on cave walls, the invention of the alphabet did not make symbolic drawings obsolete, and the printing press has not stopped anyone from hand-writing altogether. We still have drawings, paintings, script, font, photographs, and now computers, and as we move forward with new technology, the visual world of communication will extend even further.
sources:http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578676/Paleolithic_Art.html
http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/rockandcaves.html
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761565349/Alphabet.html#p4
http://www.citrinitas.com/history_of_viscom/ideograms.html
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761574514/Rhetoric.html
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578946/Posters.html#p10
Blair, J. Anthony talked about “The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Arguments.” Argumentation and Advocacy 33 (1996): 23-39.
-I’m sorry, but the ability to have a visual argument is interesting. It just opens a new realm of possibilities in the the art and written word fields. I just wonder if you can actually make a picture into an argument. How exactly is that done?
http://www.wfu.edu/~zulick/454/visrhetbib.html
The very existence of a visual language gives rise to the concept of visual rhetoric. As its spoken counterpart does, visual rhetoric has its own figures and its own way of using them. by Juan C. Dürsteler
http://www.infovis.net/printMag.php?lang=2&num=121
The main issues are:
It has to be based on such basic conventional elements that it’s easily understood.
The use of different text can be hard to read and sometimes convey the wrong meaning.
Such as headline type and Script types
The use of color on websites can make it hard to read.
The use of images can sometimes not show what you meant to emphasize.
Using clip art doesn’t show much creativeness and often is so generic that is seems lazy. Often many people have the same clip art and are not impress by your selection.
Illustrations and Diagrams can make or break a design. They can sometimes be unclear so always think about what would convey the information with the most clarity.
Graphs-Everyone likes pie charts but they are only good for showing parts of a whole. Bar graphs are help for a variety of numeric variables even over time. Line graphs are great but too many lines can be confusing.
Photograhpy- is always popular but manipulating it can cause distortions. Copyright becomes an issue because many people beginners tend to just upload the first image they come across. Sometimes removing items from a picture to make it more clear is not really showing what is true. Often times compressing and can distort the picture.
Overall Design
All factors have to come together. Certain fonts don’t work with certain colors.