viz.

by Tim Turner

What is Visual Rhetoric?

As a discipline of rhetorical study, visual rhetoric can refer to a wide variety of analytical and pedagogical practices.  Essentially, however, it refers to the practice of analyzing and/or describing how images communicate meaning or advance arguments.  It may be thought of as the rhetorical analysis of images using the familiar vocabulary of rhetorical theory (such as ethos, pathos, and logos), but with a supplementary vocabulary unique to the analysis of the visual (e.g., with reference to color, graphic design, iconography, etc.)  Although the object of visual rhetorical inquiry can be virtually limitless as long as images of some kind are involved, in rhetoric courses these subjects frequently include advertising, iconic or contemporary photography, film, maps, and web design.

Additionally, in a recent review article on the current state of visual rhetoric, Paul Messaris articulates four key questions for establishing the broadest framework of such study:

• Do visual arguments need captions?
• Are pictures more emotional than words?
• Are words more informative than pictures?
• Do photographs provide more trustworthy evidence than words or other types of pictures?

Each question aims to unsettle conventional wisdom about the difference between images and words, thus complicating the supposed "differentiation of the verbal and the visual" that David Blakesly has also challenged.

Aims of Visual Pedagogy

The basic paradigm for teaching composition (exemplified in the "controversy model" often employed introductory rhetoric courses) involves leading students first to describe and analyze the components of persuasive written arguments by others (rhetorical analysis) before leading them to write such persuasive arguments themselves (advocacy).

The aims of visual pedagogy are similarly twofold: by including instruction in visual rhetoric in the curriculum, instructors can help students

• Become more sophisticated, analytic, and thoughtful reader-interpreters of images;
• Create and/or deploy visual arguments in their own work.

Analysis as visual literacy: Today, digital technology, social media, YouTube, and the omnipresence of cell-phone cameras (among other developments) have made images a ubiquitous part of everyday communication networks.  As citizens-and as consumers-all of us are confronted with visual presentations of information and argumentation on a near-constant basis.  For this reason, instructors are encouraged to think of visual rhetoric not as a supplement to the curriculum, but as a vital component in the process of helping students become more literate participants in these networks.

Creation as visual competency: In addition to helping students become more literate and active interpreters of visual communication, visual pedagogy can also play a part in helping students become active participants in these exchanges by fostering visual competency. Here, the goal is to help students successfully deploy visual arguments of their own, either in support of mostly written arguments (e.g., using images or graphically presented statistical information to support the arguments of an advocacy paper) or in place of mostly written arguments (e.g., substituting a short film, slidecast, web site, or brochure designed using professional software in place of an advocacy paper).

Incorporating Visual Rhetoric in the Composition Curriculum

There are many ways to incorporate visual rhetoric and visual pedagogy into the curriculum for composition or literature courses.  The following breakdown distinguishes between short- and long-form projects.

Short-form projects (1 - 2 class meetings)

• Provide students with a short, introductory reading on visual rhetoric, such as the relevant chapter from the latest edition of Everything's an Argument.
• Ask students to find and rhetorically analyze an image on a topic chosen by the instructor relevant to class discussion. Either have them write up a one-page paper, or have them present on their images in class (or both).
• Using YouTube or another web-based video service, find and show in class a commercial relevant to your topic, and lead students through a discussion of its rhetorical dimensions.
• Ask students to write a short (1 - 2) page visual analysis of a specific element, determined by the instructor, of the visual rhetoric of a film shown in class or required for outside viewing.
• Have students visualize the pre-writing process by creating and presenting a MindMaps outlining the presentation of a written argument.
• Have students create and discuss an original Google Map connecting the topic of your course with local venues and locations.
• In class, break students into groups and ask them to spend a class meeting rhetorically analyzing the visual components of a web site relevant to the topic of your course; provide students with specific questions leading them to consider how visual and textual elements interact to produce meaning.  Ask them to discuss ways to improve its visual components.
• Ask students to include a visual element of some kind in their final projects, including either original photography or graphically presented information, such as the results of a survey.

Long-form projects (from several class meetings to semester-length projects)

• Provide students with in-depth reading on visual rhetoric, including the relevant chapters from a visual rhetoric textbook, such as Picturing Texts (available in the CWRL library), as well as sample essays demonstrating visual analyses, such as one from the collection Visual Rhetoric: A Reader in Communication and American Culture.
• Plan a unit focusing entirely on visual rhetoric, with readings, exercises, and an assignment asking students to analyze and/or create visual arguments relevant to the topic of your course (see the sample unit on propaganda at http://viz.dwrl.utexas.edu/node/265).
• Have students maintain an ongoing course blog dedicated entirely to issues in visual rhetoric related to the topic of your course, so that all blog posts either analyze existing visual content or present original content created by the student.
• As a final project, have students work in groups to create short (4 - 6 minute) documentary films advocating a particular position on the issues they have been researching in your class; allow this film to substitute for the written advocacy paper.
• Have students create slidecasts involving original documentary photography to advocate for a particular position; ask students to write a document accompanying the slideshow, thus bringing together image and text.
• Working individually or in groups, have students design and implement web sites presenting their research and their advocacy of a particular position, combining visual and textual elements.

Available Technologies and Applications

Flickr - Massive database of images, many of which are licensed using Creative Commons.

Google Maps - Using "My Maps" or Google Earth, the creative possibilities here are almost limitless.

InDesign - This professional Adobe software is used for desktop publishing of items like pamphlets (how-to guide).

iMovie - Software for editing and creating films (how-to guide).

MindMapping - This software enables students to brainstorm by creating visual representations of the thought-process (how-to guide).

Viz. - This web site, maintained by the visual rhetoric project in the CWRL, includes an ongoing blog on visual culture, a visual rhetoric assignments database, and introductory pages on theories of visual rhetoric.

YouTube - This ubiquitous site doubtless needs no introduction.  A virtually endless resource for video content.

Additional Resources

Viz.: A web site for visual rhetoric, visual culture, and pedagogy, maintained by the DWRL

Viz. collection of visual rhetoric assignments

Viz. bibliography of resources on visual rhetoric

No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy

Sociological Images: Inspiring Sociological Imaginations Everywhere

Information Aesthetics: Where form follows data

"Visual Rhetoric" (Wikipedia)

"Visual Rhetoric" (Wikibooks)

"What is Visual Rhetoric, and What is its Tradition?" by David Blakesly

"What's Visual about Visual Rhetoric?" by Paul Messaris // Quarterly Journal of Speech 95.2 (This review article is available as a full-text PDF through JSTOR)