Visual rhetoric is the study of how document design (including the use of illustrations, charts and graphs, typography and layout) communicate, as opposed to aural or verbal messages. Visual rhetoric examines also the relationship between images and writing.
#10351
From the Steam Engine to DNA: Revolutions 
This chapter from the most recent book by STC's 1998 Honorary Fellow demonstrates that a great dynamic web of change links us to one another and to all the events of the past and the future. James Watt’s improvements to the steam engine are linked to the invention of the copier, carbon paper, and the safety match, as well as the discovery of DNA.
Burke, James. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Rhetoric
#22572
From Uncredible to Incredible: Tips for Speakers 
Suggests ways that speakers can increase their credibility with their audience.
Fritze, Shelley and Maureen V. McIntyre. Intercom (2004). Articles>Presentations>Rhetoric
#29802
Frozen Memories: Unthawing Scott of the Antarctic in Cultural Memory
This article explores the staging of memory and death and the connotative differences within still photographs and film. It examines the tenses that can be inferred in reading photographs and film through examples drawn from representations of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-13 and Captain Scott's journey to the South Pole taken by Herbert Ponting, and in the 1948 film _Scott of the Antarctic_.
Barwell, Claire. Visual Communication (2007). Articles>Multimedia>Visual Rhetoric
#14033
Functional Redundancy and Ellipsis as Strategies in Reading and Writing
Redundancy is widely seen as a kind of linguistic cholesterol, clogging the arteries of our prose and impeding the efficient circulation of knowledge. However, I will argue that, just as a more thorough understanding of cholesterol reveals the existence of good cholesterol (HDL) as well as bad (LDL), so a broader view on the principle of redundancy reveals its effectiveness in certain situations, particularly beyond the sentence level. In this article I aim to revive the beneficial or functional sense of redundancy and show that functional redundancy in writing need not be a contradiction in terms. I believe a discussion of redundancy should include its opposite, ellipsis, so I will define both terms, emphasizing the beneficial sense of each, and then show how they appear in both reading and writing. In the latter part of the article, to illustrate the pervasiveness of redundancy and ellipsis, I will discuss examples of each in document design and in figures of speech. My attention will mainly be on technical writing, but the principles I will discuss may apply to other genres, too.
Grant-Davie, Keith. JAC (1995). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric
#10077
The Fundamentals of Persuasive Writing
What are the characteristics that make copy effective? Why does one ad make a lasting impression and sell merchandise, while another falls flat and doesn’t generate enough revenue to pay its own cost? Virtually all persuasive copy contains the eight elements described in this article.
#14052
Genre and Identity: Citizenship in the Age of the Internet and the Age of Global Capitalism 
One of the more popular academic slogans of this half century is Wittgenstein's characterization of language-in-use as a form of life. Genre theory takes this slogan seriously. In perceiving an utterance as being of a certain kind or genre, we become caught up in a form of life, joining speakers and hearers, writers and readers, in particular relations of a familiar and intelligible sort. As participants orient towards this communicative social space they take on the mood, attitude, and actional possibilities of that placeóthey go that place to do the kinds of things you do there, think the kinds of thoughts you think there, feel the kind of way you feel there, satisfy what you can satisfy there, be the kind of person you can become there (Bazerman 1997, 1998). It is like going to a dining room, or a dance hall, or a seminar, or church. You know what you are getting yourself into and what range of relations and objects will likely be realized there. You adopt a frame of mind, set your hopes, plan accordingly, and begin acting with that orientation.
Bazerman, Charles. UCSB (1999). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory
#21976
Although rhetorical criticism has recently provided a profusion of claims that certain discourses constitute a distinctive class, or genre, rhetorical theory has not provided firm guidance on what constitutes a genre.
Miller, Carolyn R. North Carolina State University (1984). Articles>Rhetoric>Genre>Theory
#22904
Genre Ecologies: An Open-System Approach to Understanding and Constructing Documentation
Arguing that current approaches to understanding and constructing computer documentation are based on the flawed assumption that documentation works as a closed system, the authors present an alternative way of thinking about the texts that make computer technologies usable for people. Using two historical case studies, the authors describe how a genre ecologies framework provides new insights into the complex ways that people use texts to make sense of computer technologies. The framework is designed to help researchers and documentors account for contingency, decentralization, and stability in the multiple texts the people use while working with computers. The authors conclude by proposing three heuristic tools to support the work of technical communicators engaged in developing documentation today: exploratory questions, genre ecology diagrams, and organic engineering.
Spinuzzi, Clay and Mark Zachry. Journal of Computer Documentation (2000). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric
#28350
Gentle Reader, Stay Awhile; I Will Be Faithful
Every opening paragraph is the beginning of a delicate and transient relationship between reader and writer. This relationship begins quietly, usually without much fanfare--and if it's properly initiated, the reader doesn't even know it's happening. Yet the success of this relationship is an important factor in creating an enjoyable, engaging experience for the reader. This is especially true on the web where author credibility can be difficult to establish, and where, increasingly, readers have so many choices that separating the chaff from the wheat can be a daunting process.
Simmons, Amber. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Writing>Rhetoric
#29650
Get a Clue: Understanding the Who in Audience Analysis
This paper describes an interactive game that technical communicators in a department or project group can play to share each other's experience and discuss how to expand audience analysis with effective user data.
Clark, Robin. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Rhetoric>Audience Analysis
#27790
Getting Off the Starting Block: Practical Tips to Starting a White Paper
Why are white papers so hard to write? Simply put, they require effort. Effort makes us sweat. Just the thought of working hard causes some people's blood to percolate.
Stelzner, Michael A. WhitePaperSource (2006). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>White Papers
#25065
Since the early 1980s, composition studies has arrived at a broad consensus that it is important to understand how social contexts relate to the cognitive processes and individual behaviors involved in writing and reading texts, although within this broad consensus are various notions of context and of how contexts relate to processes and texts. Drawing on both structuralist and everyday accounts of discourse and society, composition theory and research have generally conceptualized the contexts of writing in terms of abstract, unified constructs. Whether defined globally (culture, language, history, discourse community, genre, ideological state apparatus) or locally (institutional setting, communicative situation, task demand), context has typically been construed as a static, unified given, something that both frames and governs literate activity.
Prior, Paul. LLAD (1994). Articles>Rhetoric>History
#20519
Give Participants Something to Flip Over
Let me start off by saying that I do NOT like toys or other distractions in training. I’m NOT one to provide little widgets to keep participants’ hands occupied or provide cutesy pens or such trinkets. I’ve always viewed them as distractions that shouldn’t be necessary if your training is engaging and relevant.
Traut, Terence R. Presenters University. Articles>Presentations>Rhetoric>Microsoft PowerPoint
#10496
A Glossary of Rhetorical Terms with Examples
A comprehensive glossary of figures of speech.
Harris, Robert. University of Kentucky (1998). Books>Rhetoric
#18864
English may be the world's quasi-official language, but that doesn't mean U.S. businesspeople or academics are off the hook when presenting in foreign cultures. Here's what it takes to be an effective — and culturally correct — speaker to international audiences.
#29384
A Good Speech is Like a Good Relationship: 20 Tips for Presentation Success!
Contrary to what many people think, a speech is not a performance. Rather, it's a relationship -- ideally a meaningful one -- that you create with a group of people. Like any good relationship, a speech requires caring, trust, openness, accessibility, and two-way communication.
Burton Nelson, Mariah. Expert Magazine (2002). Articles>Presentations>Rhetoric
#30876
#26341
Graphic design is everywhere, in every product, package, poster, and product of the modern world. Although the graphic design discipline was created less than a century ago, the world has since come to rely upon it. The world simply cannot function without graphic design and graphic designers. Yet graphic design is broader than any other creative profession. It is the third largest profession in the United States, far ahead of more commonly understood and respected vocations such as attorney, accountant, and educator. Graphic designers, who run the gamut from after-hours moonlighter through freelancer, solo- and team-creative, to agency and corporate designers, work in every city, town, and village in the world. Graphic design impacts everything and everyone.
Burke, Pariah S. Designorati (2005). Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric
#31784
Graphics and Ethos in Biomedical Journals
This article describes a study that examined the tables and figures in articles from a basic research journal, The Journal of Cell Biology, and compared them to tables and figures from an applied medical journal, The New England Journal of Medicine. Comparison of graphics between the two journals shows sharp differences in terms of range of graphics types, visual consistency within and between articles, or use of color. As the articles take into account what is needed by different audiences, the graphics help to build the credibility of the journal. The study also addresses the question of how scientific visuals contribute to the persuasiveness of a writer, looking at how the graphics within an article affect the credibility or ethos of the writer.
Hutto, David. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>Research>Biomedical>Visual Rhetoric
#25992
The Great Myth That Plain Language Is Not Precise
Occasionally, when you try to convert from legalese to plain language, someone will come forward and assert that you made a mistake. You missed something in the translation. You inadvertently changed the substance.
Kimble, Joseph. Plain Language Network (2000). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Minimalism
#14069
Green Giving: Engagement, Values, Activism, and Community Life
Philanthropic campaigns typically offer value identification and identity rewards for gift giving. These rewards may be increased by engaging the gift-givers within the work and activity of the charitable organization; moreover, fund-raising may reach beyond the limited budget people typically allocate to psychic goods if charitable gifts are perceived as part of the costs of one's way of life and as part of the meanings, activities, and communities within which one lived one's life. In support of these claims, I examine environmental fund-raising in Santa Barbara through interviews with fund-raisers involved with the Community Environmental Council and the campaign to purchase a major coastal property for a preserve. The fundraising for CEC indicates ways in which people's identities and commitments may be drawn on and reinforced and how people's interests in sustaining a way of life can become the basis of funding campaigns; CEC fundraising suggests that activism does not necessarily translate into giving, depending on the nature of the active engagement. The case of the preservation of the Wilcox property suggests how commitment to a community way of life can mobilize extraordinary giving when the community as a whole starts to perceive itself engaged in common endeavor and commitment. The success of the campaign itself then becomes a sign of community strength and community values.
Bazerman, Charles. UCSB. Articles>Rhetoric>Community Building
#10411
Guidelines for Designing and Evaluating the Display of Information on the Web
These guidelines are intended to assist Web designers, authors, and editors in their efforts to create Web pages that effectively reveal—rather than obscure or confuse—the information they are trying to present. These guidelines are also intended to be used to assist in the evaluation of existing Web sites. Of course, the design of a Web site can, to some degree, be modified by the user or by the characteristics of the browser or monitor enlisted to display it. The guidelines, consequently, acknowledge that in a very real sense, users may also assume the role of designer. The guidelines, therefore, are also intended to help users make informed decisions about how to make a display easier to use.
Williams, Thomas R. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Web Design>Assessment>Visual Rhetoric
#26377
Understanding the dynamic qualities of typography through analogies with sound and music.
Armstrong, Frank. AIGA (2005). Design>Typography>Visual Rhetoric>Audio
#25684
The Historical Meaning of the Crisis in Psychology: A Methodological Investigation
To try and explain everything means to explain nothing.
Vygotsky, Lev. Marxists.org (1927). Books>Rhetoric>Theory
#26757
The home page is your first impression. And like the old saying goes, you only get one chance. So home pages themselves have a unique set of design goals.
Powazek, Derek. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Rhetoric
