Is Copyright Blind to the Visual?

This article argues that, with respect to the copyright protection of works of visual art, the general uneasiness that has always pervaded the relationship between copyright law and concepts of creativity produces three anomalous results. One of these is that copyright lacks much in the way of a central concept of 'visual art' and, to the extent that it embraces any concept of the 'visual', it is rooted in the rhetorical discourse of the Renaissance. This means that copyright is poorly equipped to deal with modern developments in the visual arts. Secondly, the pervasive effect of rhetorical discourse appears to have made it particularly difficult for copyright law to strike a meaningful balance between protecting creativity and permitting its use in further creative works. Thirdly, just when rhetorical discourse might have been useful in identifying the significance and materiality of the unique one-off work of visual art, copyright law chooses to ignore its implications.

Macmillan, Fiona. Visual Communication (2008). Articles>Intellectual Property>Copyright>Visual Rhetoric

JAC: The Journal of Advanced Composition  

JAC provides a forum for scholars interested in theoretical approaches to the study of rhetoric, writing, multiple literacies, and the politics of difference. As a forum for interdisciplinary inquiry, the journal features articles that explore intersections between rhetoric and composition theory and theoretical work in other fields of study. Also featured are articles on workplace literacies, computers and writing, literature and writing, cultural studies and critical literacy, graduate education, and scholarly writing and publication. Articles that address important professional issues in composition studies, English studies, and higher education are also appropriate. JAC publishes articles on pedagogical theory but does not accept articles describing classroom practices unless those practices illustrate a pedagogical or critical theory.

JAC (1988). Journals>Rhetoric

Joddy's Visual Rhetoric Bibliography

This is a working bibliography on visual rhetoric, visual studies, visual literacy, and anything concerning the image and writing.

Murray, Joddy. Morrismurray.net. Resources>Bibliographies>Rhetoric

The Journal of Business and Technical Communication    

The Journal of Business and Technical Communcation keeps you informed about the latest communication practices, problems and trends in both business and academic settings. It covers written, oral and electronic communication in all areas of business, science and government. Created over a decade ago to meet the growing demand for research and analysis in this expanding field, JBTC covers topics of fundamental interest and key issues such as: managerial communication; collaborative writing; ethics of business communication; technical writing pedagogy; business-communication education; gender differences in writing; international communication; graphic design; ethnography and corporate culture.

Journal of Business and Technical Communication. Journals>TC>Business Communication>Rhetoric

Kairos  

Kairos is a refereed online journal exploring the intersections of rhetoric, technology, and pedagogy. In Kairos, we publish 'webtexts,' which are texts authored specifically for publication on the World Wide Web. These webtexts include scholarly examinations of large-scale issues related to special topics, individual and collaborative reviews of books and media, news and announcements of interest, interactive exchanges about previous Kairos publications, and extended interviews with leading scholars. With Kairos, we seek to push boundaries in academic publishing at the same time we strive to bridge the gap between print and digital publishing cultures. We further seek to bring forward and support the voices of those too often marginalized in the academy, especially graduate students and adjunct and other part-time faculty.

Kairos. Journals>Rhetoric>Technology

Kairos in the Rhetoric of Science  

If there is a canonical text in this still-early period of the rhetorical criticism of science, it is the 1953 Nature paper in which James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick proposed the double helix structure for DNA.

Miller, Carolyn R. North Carolina State University (1992). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Rhetoric

Kairosnews  

Kairosnews is an open community of members interested in the intersections of rhetoric, technology and pedagogy. Visitors can create an account, submit a story, join in the many discussions by posting comments, or read the news gathered from other sites by our aggregator. Members can also subscribe to a daily email newsletter of updated site content.

Kairos. Resources>Writing>Rhetoric>Blogs

Kairosnews Weblink Directory  

A collection of links to websites in rhetoric and technical communication.

Kairos. Resources>Directories>TC>Rhetoric

Karen A. Schriver: The InfoDesign interview

Karen Schriver is the author of Dynamics in Document Design: Creating texts for readers, an extensive, multidimensional portrait of what readers need from documents and of ways to integrate word and image in order to better meet those needs. She is the former co-director of the graduate program in technical communication and document design at Carnegie Mellon University. Her company, KSA Document Design and Research, helps organizations improve the quality of their paper and electronic communications through strategies based on research and best practices.

Bogaards, Peter J. InformationDesign (2005). Articles>Interviews>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric

Keeping the Rhetoric Orthodox: Forum Control in Science      

Academic disciplines certify knowledge through publication in scholarly journals; therefore, peer review of journal articles is one method of authorizing someone’s speech.  It is possible, however, to see peer review and other strategies as methods by which elites silence or de-authorize voices that pose a threat to their status.  This article discusses four methods of forum control--peer review, denial of forum, public correction, and published ridicule.  Examples are drawn from cases in science.

Sullivan, Dale L. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Scientific Communication>Rhetoric

Language as Vision: The Ocularcentrism of Chomskyan Linguistics

References to vision pervade Chomsky’s work. They are a key component of the figures he uses, the examples he provides, the analogies he makes, and the argumentative warrants supporting his central claims. When dealing with opponents Chomsky repeatedly exploits the rhetorical potential of visual analogies and metaphors in order to construct rebuttals. References to vision and to spatio-visual phenomenon constitute a key component of the most characteristic rhetorical moves Chomsky makes, and are central to the way Chomsky defines the project of linguistics. From Syntactic Structures to his most recently published texts, Chomsky’s writing is permeated by a constellation of terms centered on space, vision, optics and form. This is perhaps not altogether surprising, given that Chomsky is a thinker who identifies so strongly with Descartes, and who describes his theoretical project as “Cartesian”. In Modernity and the Hegemony of Vision David Levin argues that Descartes is the modern philosopher most obviously indebted to the metaphor of knowledge as spatio-visual, a writer whose work most clearly exemplifies a discourse that is dominated by an ocular metaphoric. While a range of figurative expressions characterize generative discourse, ocular metaphors are assigned a place of particular importance.

Werry, Chris. Lore (2002). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory>Tropes

Laugh and Learn

Laughter is an important component in any presentation. Even when presenter ignores humor, the attendees find it, sometimes at the presenter’s expense. The need for laughter is so strong that participants seek out opportunities to laugh throughout every seminar. They do so with good reason. It is natural and appropriate to use humor in learning situations. It is, for a number of reasons, also demonstrative of solid instructional design.

Millbower, Lenn. Presenters University. Articles>Presentations>Rhetoric

Leadership, Rhetoric and the Polis    

This article argues that leadership and rhetoric are intimately connected; therefore, rhetoric should include the explicit examination of all aspects of leadership (that is, including but not limited to rhetorical criticism of the speeches and writings of leaders), both as an area of research and an area of pedagogy. This is particularly important when helping students become active members of the citizenry is seen a central goal of what teachers are doing in the English or Communication class. The interconnections between leadership and the concept of the polis, the active assembly of citizens empowered to discuss and make public policy, is useful here, even though the polis may no longer exist in its original form. In particular, leadership through identification with the polis appears to be an approach with great potential.

Gellis, Mark. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2002). Articles>Rhetoric>Management

Learn Logic

Divide the fallacies listed equally among group members. Members must write a page on each of their assigned fallacies, explaining them clearly and providing at least five examples. Each site provides some examples already; you may use three examples from the site, but must find at least two examples from everyday usage. You may look in newspapers, on TV, or on other Web sites that do not deal with logical fallacies. Take turns reading each report to your group.

Lannon, John M. Pearson Education (2003). Academic>Course Materials>Rhetoric

Learn the Techniques of Writing Before You Write

Writing is an art form. You must understand this art form before you can begin to challenge yourself and grow. Not many people would pick up a cello and start playing right away, without any knowledge of the basics of music, but the same does not hold true with writing. In fact, many people perceive writing to be some sort of inherent talent, without the need for training and hard work. Of course, some writers have a natural gift for creating structured and meaningful works with only minimal revision, but these are the exception rather than the rule.

McKay, Carolyn. Writer's Block (1996). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

Learning to Link Artifact and Value: The Arguments of Student Designers  

The article explores the relationship between design and rhetoric. From the "Language and Learning Across the Disciplines" series, part of the "Writing Across the Curriculum" website at CSU.

Fleming, David. LLAD (1997). Articles>Rhetoric

Learning to Speak With, Not To, Readers

I think that most journalists prefer giving lectures to having conversations. But today it seems clear to me that the creative-writing class was the more valuable experience. As tough as it was, I learned more in that 'conversation' than I could ever have learned in my own lecture.

Conley, Paul. Blogger.com (2006). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

Lenguaje Visual

El lenguaje escrito no es más que un caso particular del lenguaje visual. En realidad hay muchos lenguajes visuales que parecen tener reglas en común. Pensar en el lenguaje visual nos puede ayudar a transmitir nuestros mensajes de forma más efectiva.

Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2003). (Spanish) Articles>Language>Visual Rhetoric>Technical Illustration

Lest We Think the Revolution Is a Revolution: Images of Technology and the Nature of Change  

When technical communication teachers get together to talk about technology, they generally end up talking about change. It is common sense, after all to link computers with change when microprocessors now double in speed every 18 months (Patterson, 1995), when biomemory, superscalar architecture, and picoprocessors become feature stories for National Public Radio; and when media generations flash by in less time than it takes to uncrate a faculty workstation and get rid of the Styrofoam packing.

Selfe, Cynthia L. CPTSC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Technology>History>Rhetoric

Let It Flow

To become a more fluent writer, try these strategies.

Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

Letters and the Social Grounding of Differentiated Genres  

Several times in my research over the years, I have noticed letters playing a role in the emergence of distinctive genres: the early scientific article emerging from the correspondence of Hans Oldenburg, the first editor of the Philosophic Transactions of the Royal Society; the patent, originally known as letters patent; stockholders' reports evolving from letters to stockholders; and internal corporate reporting and record forms regularizing internal corporate correspondence. was not the first to notice any of these; however, in putting the four cases together, it struck me that these may be part of a more general pattern. As I pursued the thought that letters might have a special role in genre formation, many other examples of genres with strong connections to correspondence came to my attention, including newspapers and other periodicals, financial instruments such as bills of exchange and letters of credit, books of the New Testament, papal encyclicals, and novels. The letter, in its directness of communication between two parties within a specific relationship in specific circumstances (all of which could be commented on directly), seemed to provide a flexible medium out of which many functions, relationships, and institutional practices might develop--making new uses socially intelligible at the same time as allowing the form of the communication to develop in new directions.

Bazerman, Charles. UCSB. Articles>Rhetoric>Correspondence>Genre

Listen Up!: Speech Recognition's Impact on Communication, Rhetoric, and Interface

Look around the computer screen on which you're viewing this document. Do you see a keyboard and mouse a short distance away? These two traditional input devices have become so deeply entrenched as the established human-computer interface that they are inseparable from our notion of the 'computing experience.' Yet in many ways, keyboards and mice only make our experiences with computers more unnatural, forcing us into modes of interaction that we would never use with other people. In other words, they make humans interact with machines, rather than machines with humans.

Propper, Ryan. Stanford University (2005). Articles>User Interface>Rhetoric>Voice

Literature Review: What is Visual Literacy?  

This paper takes a look at what is being said in various disciplines (technical writing, journalism, education, psychology, user interface design, and visual arts) in an attempt to answer the question 'What is visual literacy?' A corollory is 'How will I know when I have achieved it?' A working definition of visual literacy has many implications for how we train technical writers in order to meet the professional challenges of the future.

Couse, Mary M. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Graphic Design>Research>Visual Rhetoric

Little Machines: Rearticulating Hypertext Users

In recognizing ourselves as computer users, we are also articulated (at least partially) as the used, the variable piece of the machine that closes the circuit, like a key in the ignition of a car. We are happiest when our technologies when they work automatically, when the machine appears to anticipate our every desire. The machine is never completely absent from our attention, but it is becoming increasingly difficult--pointless, it seems--to think critically about the operations of the machine and our position within it. We don't think often about the ways in which the technology (and the larger, social technical system) construct users in ways that presuppose a simple, mechanistic model of efficiency and value. If the programmers have done their work well, we reason, then we shouldn't have to think. Functional hypertexts (online documention, references, tutorials) are defined, socially and politically, in this politics of amnesia.

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. Clarkson University (1995). Articles>Rhetoric>Hypertext

The Logical and Rhetorical Construction of Procedural Discourse     

A very useful perspective for understanding procedural ('how to') discourse and for writing better procedures is to view procedures as a framework of actions and states. The states include desired (goal) states and unwanted states; the actions are user actions, system actions, and external events. This framework underlies all kinds of procedural discourse, including streamlined-step procedures, the model that predominates in online help systems. The components that make up streamlinedstep procedures are best understood as combinations of actions and states. Procedural discourse is also highly rhetorical in nature. We can see the rhetorical implications of actions and states in the various models of procedural discourse, and in specific strategies that writers implement. Because of its terse and rigid nature, the streamlinedstep model is not well suited for certain rhetorical strategies and cognitive goals, and so while recognizing the efficiency of the streamlined-step model, writers should not neglect more

Farkas, David K. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric