Visual Aid Virtuosity

Einstein said, If I can't 'see' it, I don't understand it. When visuals are used, you are more persuasive, you can cover more ground in less time, retention and comprehension are greater and, your presentation is more interesting and involving.

Miller, Anne. Presenters University (2002). Articles>Presentations>Visual Rhetoric>Microsoft PowerPoint

A Visual and Social Analysis of Optometric Record-Keeping Practices    

This article investigates the contribution visual rhetoric and rhetorical genre studies (RGS) can make to health care education and communication genres. Through a visual rhetorical analysis of a patient record used in an optometry teaching clinic, this article illustrates that a genre's visual representations provide significant insights into the social action of that genre. These insights are deepened by an insider analysis of the patient record that highlights how content analyses of visual designs need to be elaborated by contextual considerations. A combined visual rhetoric and RGS analysis shows that clinical novices learn to interpret the record's visual cues to safely traverse the complex requirements of this apprenticeship genre. The article demonstrates that visual rhetoric research can meaningfully contribute to the understanding of genres by presenting an enriched contextual analysis achieved by consulting with context insiders.

Varpio, Lara, Marlee M. Spafford, Catherine F. Schryer and Lorelei Lingard. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2007). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Blogs

Native to the Internet and personal in approach, weblogs deliver bite-sized portions of information on a daily basis to an ever expanding audience. Weblogs are the conjunctions of the Internet: the ands, the buts the ors – they add to online conversations, refute them, or provide new perspectives altogether.

Badger, Meredith. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric>Blogging

Visual Communication: Crossing International Boundaries  

Technical communicators often produce documents that are then translated into another language. Much has been written about creating a text that is “translatable” by eliminating analogies and metaphors; using short, clear sentences; organizing information according to the cultural preference for order; and eliminating jargon. whenever possible. Because technical communicators often provide both text and graphics, such attention to the translatability of graphics is essential to producing documents that fit the cultural conventions of the country in which the document is to be used.

Bosley, Deborah S. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Language>Localization>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Communication Stem Overview  

The visual practices of technical communication-the special use of graphics, page design, and typography, as well as the increasing reliance upon graphics software, multimedia technology, and data bases of various kindï¿distinguish the work we do from related forms of professional and academic communication. Though Visual Communication (VC) remains one of the smallest stems of the ITCC, it has traditionally offered some of the most innovative and best attended sessions of the conference. With a special emphasis on problem of design and technological change, this yearï¿s sessions should be no exception.

Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Communication>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Communication Stem Overview  

The field of Visual Communication is in the midst of a powerful transition driven by changing technology and a changing marketplace. Communicators are struggling with ambiguous definitions and expectations. Although visual communication has come to occupy a co-equal place with verbal communication in our field, those who identify themselves primarily as visual communicators are still a distinct minority in STC.

Brock, Cynthia J. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Communication>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Communication Stem Overview  

A glance through the proceedings of the last several STC annual conferences strikingly reveals how rapidly the field of visual communication is evolving. Even more striking than the yearly growth in the number of sessions is the expanding range of topics. This growth reflects the explosion of methods and technologies over the past few years that have impacted our work as visual communicators. The World Wide Web is revolutionizing the field of technical communication, and advances in technology in the areas of multimedia, video, and shared working environments present a set of diverse challenges to visual communicators.

Bayer, Nancy L. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Communication>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Communication: The Expanding Role of Technical Communicators  

Visual communication no longer refers only to illustrating verbal information but to all aspects of designing documents. To be effective as information architects, technical communicators must understand the opportunties and limitations of developing technologies, the basics of communication in general and of visual communication in particular, especially the principles of selection, design, positioning, production, and cost of graphics.

Rainey, Kenneth T. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Graphic Design>Visual>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Factors in Constructing Authenticity in Weblogs

Authenticity is something which must be constructed rather than simply accruing to verbal content, and visual and other design features are an inherent, but often overlooked, factor in this construction.

Thompson, Gary. Saginaw Valley State University (2003). Articles>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric>Blogging

Visual Literacy Alternative Perspectives  

With the rush to adopt new methods of preparing graphics and the recognition that properly-prepared graphics cannot only enhance a document but may in some cases be the entire backbone of it, we need to recognize that special audiences may need extra attention when information is developed for their use. In this session, two speakers will discuss the challenges of preparing illustrated documents for pre-technological cultures and for audiences whose sight is impaired or absent. We invite you to explore these two challenges in communicating technical information.

Ausburn, Lynna J., Brea Barthel and Dart G. Peterson, Jr. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Communication>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Literacy Bibliography

The study of visual communication is a multi-disciplinary, multi-dimensional effort. People who write on this topic come from mass communication (including photography, advertising, and news editorial areas), film and cinema studies, education, art and aesthetics, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, semiotics, architecture and even archaeology. This rich melange of viewpoints is an asset because of the insights that come from cross-fertilization, however it causes some problems academically for those of us who teach visual communication because of a lack of any sense of common theory. This is not to suggest that there is or should be a central of core theory that organizes the field, however, it would be easier to order a curriculum, as well as a graduate program of study, if there were some notion of at least the important theories and scholars from the various disciplines that need to be covered. This project looks at the body of literature and the categories that emerge from the writings to develop a taxonomy of topics and some sense of the location of the most important, or at least the most frequently written about, areas of study. The objective is to collect the scholarly writing on the most central visual communication topics (mental imagery, visual thinking, the language metaphor, psychology), as well as peripheral topics that interweave with visual communication, such as sociology, anthropology, archaeology and architecture.

Moriarty, Sandra and Keith Kenney. International Visual Literacy Association. Resources>Bibliographies>Information Design>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Literacy Crash Course  

Today, communication requires more than just pages of printed words. Producing effective documents and training requires the ability to understand, think, and communicate graphically-to be visually literate. This demonstration shows how to communicate almost anything graphically. Through creative brainstorming you will start to think visually and to translate text into graphics. By looking at numerous examples of what works and what doesn’t, you are going to learn valuable principles that you can use back on the job to refine your own graphics.

Horton, William K. III. STC Proceedings (1997). Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Metadiscourse: Designing the Considerate Text      

Visual metadiscourse can provide design criteria for authors when considering the needs and expectations of readers. The linguistic concept of meta-discourse is expanded from the textual realm to the visual realm, where authors have many necessary design considerations as they attempt to help readers navigate through and understand documents. These considerations, both textual and visual, also help construct the ethos of authors, as design features reveal awareness of visual literacy and of the communication context. Visual metadiscourse complements textual metadiscourse in emphasizing the necessity of rhetoric in technical communication.

Kumpf, Eric P. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Design>Graphic Design>Rhetoric

Visual Metonymy and Synecdoche: Rhetoric For Stage-Setting Images    

The recent trend of incorporating more visuals into communication challenges technical communicators, who must now possess both verbal and visual literacy. Despite all the recent scholarship on visual aspects of technical communication, technical communicators lack thorough guidelines for selecting and composing effective images that convey thematic and conceptual information, or what Schriver calls "stage-setting" images. This article reviews existing literature in visual communication and reports results of a study that assessed readers' opinions of themes conveyed by specific example images. It then suggests that the rhetorical tropes of metonymy and synecdoche can be used to identify images for conveying certain themes, and that successful stage-setting images will show intrinsic, not extrinsic, relationships to their thematic subject matter.

Willerton, Russell. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2005). Articles>TC>Visual Rhetoric>Tropes

Visual Proofreading

We hear a lot about proofreading. And, although it is a vital part of any publication, there's another kind of proofreading that can make as much (if not more) difference in the success of your publication. Note: This is part four in a continuing series about the creative processes involved in designing a publication. I was prompted to begin this series by the discussions and questions asked by attendees of my Newsletter Design workshop recently in Dallas.

Design, Typography and Graphics (2000). Design>Graphic Design>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Rhetoric

This course focuses on articulating rhetorical opportunities present in the visual turn; the role of perceptual processes, time, movement, and memory in the act of seeing; the interanimation of the verbal and the visual in representation; the circumstances of visual culture and art; visual communication in print and on the Web; and identification as a visual/rhetorical process. Is there potential to create critical verbo-visual literacy? The course explores what such definitions of literacy mean for communication, argumentation, persuasion and narration.

Salvo, Michael J. Purdue University (2004). Academic>Courses>Graduate>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Rhetoric: Literacy by Design  

The keynote speech presented at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Writing 1998 Conference, 'Technology and Literacy in a Wired Academy.'

Faigley, Lester. University of Minnesota (1998). Presentations>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Rhetoric Portal

A collection of online resources for visual rhetoric, based at the University of Minnesota.

Propen, Amy. University of Minnesota. Resources>Directories>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Rhetoric Tutorial

This interactive tutorial is designed to supplement your use of TCTC, and provides new information and activities that will enhance your understanding of visual rhetoric. This tutorial has five main sections, Visual Rhetoric, Use of Visuals, Types of Visuals, Color, and Design. With only a few variations, each section is divided into smaller three- to five-page chapters, all arranged using three basic types of pages.

Dobrin, Sidney I., Christopher J. Keller and Christian R. Weisser. TCTC. Academic>Course Materials>Visual Rhetoric

The Visual Rhetoric Web

This page serves as a gateway for an exploration of visual rhetoric. It includes links to course materials, student projects, supplementary resources, exempla, and other web-based material.

Blakesley, David. Purdue University (2000). Resources>Directories>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Social Semiotics: Understanding How Still Images Make Meaning    

Presents a framework for analyzing imagery in multi-modal print documents and Web sites. Demonstrates how images and text work together to make meaning for readers/users. Provides analytical tools and tips to help choose still images to enhance textual messages.

Harrison, Claire. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Rhetoric>Visual>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Texts and Technologies: Situating the Visual in Technoculture

In Western culture, we now understand that visual representations influence our thinking, but we don’t always fully comprehend the extent of that influence, nor do we understand precisely how that influence is exercised. In this course, we will gain a fuller understanding of the influence of the visual on meaning, by thinking with, about, and through the visual.

Kitalong, Karla Saari. University of Central Florida. Academic>Courses>Visual Rhetoric

Visual Texts: Format and the Evolution of English Accounting Texts, 1100-1700    

Emphasis on page design, as an aid to visual accessibility, did not receive attention in modern technical writing until the 1970s. However, accounting documents and instructional texts utilized format and document design strategies as early as the twelfth century to enhance the organization of quantitative data and linear bookkeeping entries. Format in text was used to reflect the arrangement used in oral accounting practices and to produce uniform documents. Thus, format was integral to the rise of pragmatic literacy of the commercial reader. During the Renaissance, these early format strategies received impetus from Ramist method. The result was design strategies that attempted to capture the rigid principles of organization fundamental to commercial accounting. These early accounting documents also illustrate the plain style that would become the focus of the later decades of the seventeenth century. Clarity in language paralleled clarity in page design for the sole purpose of eliminating ambiguity on the page and on the sentence level. Plain style was thus nurtured by financial forces long before the advent of natural science.

Tebeaux, Elizabeth. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2000). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric>History