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.
#24397
Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog 
The weblog phenomenon raises a number of rhetorical issues, including the peculiar intersection of the public and private that weblogs seem to invite.
Miller, Carolyn R. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Rhetoric>Online>Blogging
#23397
The Blue Background in PowerPoint
Why is the default color of PowerPoint dark blue? People prepare the best slides man can create - and yet they leave the default color stay dark blue.
Fuchs, Amo. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Presentations>Visual Rhetoric>Color
#30210
This article uses qualitative material gathered at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to construct a model of the rhetorical activity that occurs at the boundaries between diverse communities of practice working on complex sociotechnical systems. The authors reinterpret the notion of the boundary object current in science studies as a rhetorical construct that can foster cooperation and communication among the diverse members of heterogeneous working groups. The knowledge maps constructed by team members at LANL in their work on technical systems are boundary objects that can replace the demarcation exigence that so often leads to agonistic rhetorical boundary work with an integrative exigence. The integrative exigence realized by the boundary object of the knowledge map can help create a temporary trading zone characterized by rhetorical relations of symmetry and mutual understanding. In such cases, boundary work can become an effort involving integration and understanding rather than contest, controversy, and demarcation.
Wilson, Greg and Carl G. Herndl. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2007). Articles>Scientific Communication>Collaboration>Rhetoric
#27328
Begin sentences with subjects and verbs, letting subordinate elements branch to the right. Even a long, long sentence can be clear and powerful when the subject and verb make meaning early.
Clark, Roy Peter. Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric
#10208
Rhetoric is arguably one of the oldest disciplines in the world. Its earliest antecedent can be found in the sophist tradition of Classical Greece. Two of the earliest sophists, Tisias and Corax, made a comfortable living traveling around Hellenic Europe teaching people the finer points of oratory. The sophistic tradition was harshly criticized by major philosophers of the time (most notably, Socrates and Plato) as an unintellectual and immoral profession. In Plato's view, rhetoricians (i.e., sophists) were more concerned with appearances rather than substance--in Plato's play Gorgias, he has the character of Socrates accuse the rhetorician/sophist Gorgias of specializing in making the bad case seem best and the best case seem bad.
Petraglia-Bahri, Joseph. Georgia Institute of Technology (1996). Resources>Directories>Rhetoric
#14563
Bright Words, Dull Words, and Snags: A Theory of Technical Writing 
While all words on the page should be necessary, not every word carries the same importance. Yet words compete for attention, and depending on what they mean to readers, one word may make a greater impression than another. As writers, we must express what’s important with bright words. We must tone down what’s not important and express them with dull words. We must avoid snags, words that distract, confuse, or interfere in any way with the smooth transfer of information.
Palkovic, Lawrence A. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Writing>Rhetoric
#20926
Why are style guides so frequently created, but so rarely successful? All too often, businesses ask for a style guide as a means to create a common look and feel, in the belief that it will solve usability problems and establish consistency between applications – only to be disappointed in the results. Even if such a style guide is followed carefully, the resulting interfaces may not meet usability goals.. This paper explores strategies for creating a style guide that is more than a simplistic rules book. By making the style guide part of the process, it can be used to promote a shared vision, to help the product meet business and usability requirements for consistency and…it may actually be used.
Quesenbery, Whitney. Usability Professionals Association (2001). Articles>Style Guides>Rhetoric>Usability
#14464
Building a Swan's Nest for Instruction in Rhetoric 
When a composition teacher incorporated community-based writing assignments into her course, she found that the curriculum did not support students’ transitions to nonacademic settings. Her success in transforming the curriculum suggests that the writing classroom can function not only as a site for “general writing skills in-struction” but also for analysis of rhetorical variation.
Bacon, Nora. CCC (2000). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Rhetoric
#14976
This is chapter two from the 6th Edition of Business and Administrative Communication, developed to teach you how to communicate effectively and improve your written and oral business communication skills. This knowledge will help you in your courses and, more importantly, in your future career. Throughout this text, several pedagogical elements appear to teach readers about all the aspects of business communication. These examples in their many formats are found in every chapter and provide excellent real-world examples to underscore key concepts throughout the text.
Locker, Kitty O. McGraw-Hill (2003). Articles>Rhetoric>Writing
#29032
Burkean Invention in Technical Communication 
This article supplements existing rhetorical scholarship by returning to the notion of invention as general preparation of the communicator. Although much scholarship about invention in technical communication exists, it consists mainly of heuristics, checklists, ethical considerations, and audience awareness. Part of invention is using basic strategies to prepare the communicator to assess any communication situation and its context and to generate the appropriate discourse. Rhetorician Kenneth Burke s theories of dialectic and rhetoric are a twentieth-century version of this; this article explains important Burkean strategies such as etymological extension, limits of agreement with the thesis, finding the complex in the simple, expanding the circumference, translation or alembication, the four master tropes, and the pentad, and it shows how to apply these in technical communication. The article closes with a classroom assignment that uses Burkean invention strategies.
Todd, Jeff. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2000). Articles>TC>Rhetoric
#25285
Canadian Society for the Study of Rhetoric
The CSSR's purpose is to promote the study of the theory and practice of rhetoric in all periods and languages, and its relationships with other fields of enquiry and realms of practice.
#30012
Canonical Abstract Prototypes for Abstract Visual and Interaction Design
Abstract user interface prototypes offer designers a form of representation for specification and exploration of visual and interaction design ideas that is intermediate between abstract task models and realistic or representational prototypes. Canonical Abstract Prototypes are an extension to usage-centered design that provides a formal vocabulary for expressing visual and interaction designs without concern for details of appearance and behavior. A standardized abstract design vocabulary facilitates comparison of designs, eases recognition and simplifies description of common design patterns, and lays the foundations for better software tools. This paper covers recent refinements in the modeling notation and the set of Canonical Abstract Components. New applications of abstract prototypes to design patterns are discussed, and variations in software tools support are outlined.
Constantine, Larry L. Constantine and Lockwood (2003). Articles>User Interface>Interaction Design>Visual Rhetoric
#20289
The Case for Web Architecture: A Communication Process Approach to Retail Web Site Development
How is commercial Web site development informed by management decisions, marketing needs, business requirements, and consumer behavior and psychology (in short, the complex rhetorical situation surrounding commercial Web site development)? And how can the development process inform the formulation of a more effective Web commerce solution? I argue that the sense of community on the Web is the building block of retail Web commerce. I use a case study to show that using a communication process model can be an effective method of assessing market needs, business requirements, management decisions, and technology in the development of a retail Web solution.
Chu, Steve W. STC Proceedings (1998). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Rhetoric
#13222
In our attention to style and technology, we often overlook a vital element in the web design mix: narrative voice.
Cloninger, Curt. List Apart, A (2001). Design>Web Design>Rhetoric
#14020
Catching up with Professor Nate: The Problem with Sociolinguisitics in Composition Research
In Professional Academic Writing, Susan Peck MacDonald makes the observation that recent debates in rhetoric and composition about whether to initiate students into disciplinary practices or 'resist' current practices have frequently been framed in terms of 'accommodation' versus 'resistance,' and adds that 'these may be destructive dichotomies for us to be working with' particularly 'given the lack of close rhetorical and linguistic scrutiny we have spent on describing the nature, variation, or effects of textual practices in the humanities and social sciences'. When a field finds itself trapped in a particular dichotomy, it's time to re-examine research methods and agendas.
Prendergast, Catherine. JAC (1997). Articles>Rhetoric>Writing
#19447
This chapter reports on an ethnographic study of the technology-mediated discourse practices of a professional organization in a period of major transition. Employing theories of genre and activity along with other theoretical constructs, the study examined how the Bank of Canada, the country’s central bank, employs a “Communications Strategy” to orchestrate the organization’s communicative interactions with other social groups in the Canadian public-policy sphere. After identifying a set of written and spoken genres associated with the Communications Strategy, the chapter suggests that the genre set and various mediating technologies can be usefully viewed as parts of a local sphere of organizational activity. The chapter then describes two features of the genre set: the genre knowledge within the community-of-practice associated with it and the relationship of the genre set to processes of organizational change. Next, the chapter discusses the role that the genre set plays in the activity of the Communications Strategy, focusing on three primary functions: cocoordinating the intellectual and discursive work of a large number of individuals performing a variety of professional roles; generating, shaping, and communicating the “public information” that constitutes the Bank’s official public position on its monetary policy; and acting as a site for organizational learning. The chapter concludes with five theoretical claims regarding the way in which the genre set, mediated by technology, operates within the Bank, suggesting that these theoretical claims might serve as a heuristic for other researchers.
Smart, Graham. WAC Clearinghouse (2002). Articles>Business Communication>Rhetoric
#26211
Changing the Way the Profession Communicates: A Workshop for Prospective Journal Peer Reviewers
More than 90% of Technical Communication readers are informed practitioners--writers, editors, illustrators, designers, trainers, and project managers. About 10% are teachers and students. They come from diverse backgrounds as well as from technical communication programs.
Hayhoe, George F. STC Orange County (1998). Articles>Rhetoric>Audience Analysis>Surveys
#18375
Characterization of Quack Theories
In this article, I will first list some evidential flaws and then discuss errors in relating evidence to theory. Of necessity, this is a short list that omits most such problems. It is largely biased by what I have seen in newsgroup discussions.
Turpin, Russell. University of Texas (1993). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory>Assessment
#23626
Chunking Content: Toward a Rhetoric of Objects
We need to develop a rhetoric of objects to understand the new way in which we must create and deliver content over the Web. We are facing a new multiplicity of audiences—niche groups, and even individuals, to whom we offer customization and personalization. With our new tools and new ways of thinking about what we create, we are inventing informative objects that address the needs of our audiences, letting go of the concept of a document, as we plunge into a world of small chunks of content. In this presentation, I consider how this new approach to technical communication affects our ideas of audience, invention, arrangement, style, delivery, memory, and character—the canons of traditional rhetoric.
Price, Jonathan R. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Information Design>Web Design>Rhetoric
#30397
Clarifying Abstract Concepts Through Multimedia: Principles for Technical Communicators
Multimedia can sometimes convey meaning in ways that text and graphics alone cannot. This paper offers two principles for understanding how multimedia can clarify abstract concepts. The first principle is that multimedia is excellent for conveying any kind of change, such as change in quantity, size, shape, or relationship. The second principle is that multimedia can help present complex concepts by providing information in both the visual and auditory modes simultaneously. These principles can guide technical communicators in evaluating whether multimedia is a cost-effective way to present their information.
Garb, Rachel and Claudia M. Hunter. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Multimedia>Visual Rhetoric
#28391
Once you have your content, arranged it into a likely architecture, and worked out where it will sit on the page, you're ready to design the display layer.
Hunt, Ben. Web Design From Scratch (2006). Design>Web Design>Writing>Rhetoric
#13532
Clarity in Context: Rethinking Misunderstanding
Technical communicators are well aware of the potential for misunderstanding in their roles as communicators within organizations and as translators of information from technical to lay people. In fact, they spend much of their working lives trying to communicate clearly and avoid misunderstanding. Lack of clarity can lead to delays in completing work, to lost business, and to customer dissatisfaction. It has been blamed for everything from the delay in starting yesterday's meeting to the Challenger space shuttle disaster. If we are to address the problem of misunderstanding and try to avoid it more often, we have to understand what misunderstanding is and why it occurs.
Schneider, Barbara. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Rhetoric
#13507
In most writing classrooms, the primary activity is not writing per se, but rather the discussion of writing. You know the drill: as teachers, we create a writing assignment, introduce it during class, ask students if they have any questions, and send them off to work on the assignment. When students return to class with a draft of the assignment, we might discuss it as a class or perhaps put the students through a peer review session. But only rarely do we ask our students to actually write during class.
Palmquist, Mike. Lore (2001). Articles>Education>Writing>Rhetoric
#27733
Clear as Mud: The Plot Thickens
A lot of the time, management-speak simply seems ridiculous. But campaigners for plain English say there is a more serious side to the issue.
BBC (1998). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Minimalism
#20916
Clear Writing: Ten Principles of Clear Statement
If you want to test the clearness of your writing, you may wish to consider using a 'fog index.' Fog indexes measure the complexity of writing samples, and often provide a means of calculating the reading or educational level required to understand a particular passage. Some fog indexes are available as computer software programs, or you may do the calculations yourself.
University of Missouri (1973). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Minimalism
