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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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The role of the technical writer is expanding, partly in response to technological and societal changes; it is encompassing a broader variety of communication tasks and media. One individual, the technical communicator, often plays the roles of designer, writer, editor, and producer. As these rolesconverge, visual thinking and visual communication are becoming critical skills for many technical writers.
Brumberger, Eva R. CPTSC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Visual Rhetoric
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Visual-Spatial Thinking in Hypertexts
This article explores what it means to think visually and spatially in hypertexts. As visual-spatial texts, hypertexts urge users to think differently than they do with paper-based (verbal-linear) texts, perceiving the hypertext in three-dimensions and imagining the possible 'future paths' that might be followed in the text. Drawing from research on visual-spatial thinking from cognitive science, we explore how users react and maneuver in real and virtual three-dimensional spaces. Then we offer four principles of visual thinking that can be applied to the development of hypertexts. Illustrative uses of these principles are provided.
Johnson-Sheehan, Richard D. and Craig Baehr. Technical Communication Online (2001). Design>Information Design>Visual>Hypertext
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El siglo XX ha visto muchos avances en campos diversos. La Visualización no ha sido una excepción a esos cambios, que prepararon el camino para su transformación en 'Visualización de Información' durante las dos décadas que precedieron al nuevo milenio.
Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2003). Articles>History>Visual Rhetoric
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Visualizar la Interacción Social
La interacción social nos proporciona patrones visuales que nos ayudan a situarnos en nuestro entorno. En Internet, sin embargo, esto no es tan inmediato. Están empezando a aparecer visualizaciones que intentan paliar el problema.
Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2003). Articles>Collaboration>Visual Rhetoric
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Visualizations for Data Exploration and Analysis: A Critical Review of Usability Research
Data visualization has the potential to change the questions that people are able to pose to their data and transform their analytical methods and decision-making processes. It may, in fact, be the next generation of data reporting tools. This article argues that the prevailing computer science orientation to data visualizations is severely limited for addressing many of the usability concerns associated with supporting users in three critical problem areas: sophisticated visual literacy, complex data analysis, and new paradigms of visual inquiry. I first describe what visualization technology is and what is uncharted about the three usability areas of perceptually rich, interactive displays; complex problem-solving; and visual querying. Then I explain what it means to take a computing -- specifically an object-oriented -- perspective on the usability of visualizations, emphasizing the limitations of this point of view when it comes to supporting users in complex activities and reasoning.
Mirel, Barbara E. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Usability>Visual>Visual Rhetoric
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Visualizing Information: An Overview of This Special Issue
The guest editors offer a brief history of visualization, discuss the present state of the art, and explore the possibilities and challenges that lie ahead. They then discuss the contents of this special issue in terms of the trends in visualization theory and research. They conclude by observing that technical communicators must respond to the challenges presented in the content of this issue, both by using the methods presented and by performing the further research the authors call for. Additionally, researchers must incorporate the results of inquiry in the related fields.
Gribbons, William M. and Arthur G. Elser. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Technical Illustration
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Visually Speaking: Adult-Only Publications
Corporate photography was once the realm of adults only. Just a few years ago, it was surprising to see a picture of anybody under 40 years old in an annual report or capabilities brochure, much less someone under the age of 12. But nowadays, photos of children are showing up more and more often in all kinds of corporate publications, and as you might suspect, photographing children requires a totally different approach than shooting the CEO.
Salvo, Suzanne. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Design>Graphic Design>Photography>Visual Rhetoric
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Visually Teaching Technical Communication—Despite Technology
Enticed by sophisticated software, students of technical communication often lose perspective of visual effect. Inclusion of design principles into syllabi for technicalcommunication courses can conflict with those elements, such as substance content and audience analysis, that already occupy primary emphases. Principles of visual design can, however, be taught within group projects on professional presentations or similar topics. Cognitive dissonance introduced through rudimentary techniques of not computerized—but manual—design shifts student focus from keyboard and mouse to visual coherence of the final product. This simple technique offers benefits to students and researchers of technical communication.
Bonk, Robert J. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Education>Visual Rhetoric
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Visuals and Specialization Present Possibilities for Handling the Information Overload Crisis
Professional communicators and attorneys have long stood side by side as both fought to win in court—one in the court of law, the other in the court of public opinion. These two sometimes wary compatriots, however, are now beginning to partner more frequently to garner the best results for the executive suite.
Larkin, T.J. and Sandar Larkin. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric>Charts and Graphs
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Based on an interpretive study, this article focuses on visual composition within the workforce as perceived by individuals who use visuals to instruct, persuade, or inform while speaking to an intended audience. Tabulated and evaluated responses to survey statements relate the presenter's perception of a visual's function, the presenter's sensitivity to and the use of the audience perspective in visual composition, and training received in researching an audience. Data also provides a comparative analysis among respective organizations categorized by career interests: administrative or managerial positions within product-oriented business, people-oriented business, and educational institutions. Survey statements reflect the frames of reference that regulate visual design: the color spectrum, gender, cultural sensitivity, structural organization, semantics, and adherence to ethics when applying technological enhancements.
Caricato, Josephine A. Technical Communication Online (2000). Design>Information Design>Visual>Visual Rhetoric
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The goal of this site is to explore the ways in which rhetoric, visual culture, and pedagogy interact with and inform each other. In keeping with this mission, the viz. blog is a forum for exploring the visual through identifying the connections between theory, rhetorical practice, popular culture, and the classroom.
University of Texas. Resources>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric>Blogs
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Welcome to the Third Dimension: Spatial Elements in Exhibit Design
Modern exhibit design and conventional technical communication are both concerned with verbal and visual presentation of information. Another aspect, not relevant to written technical communication but fundamental to exhibit design is the use of 3dimensional space. This paper examines two spatial elements in exhibit design: Visitor circulation patterns and the scale of displays. Circulation patterns are the paths taken by visitors through the exhibit area. Scale refers to the size of exhibits and architectural features in relation to the size of the average visitor. By comparing two visitor center exhibits that take very different approaches, I will argue that these spacial elements carry meaning and, like any other message, they can influence the thoughts, feelings, and actions of spectators.
Jackson, Patricia. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Presentations>Visual Rhetoric
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What Good Writers and Editors Know About Design
Words seldom exist in a visual vacuum. With the exception of audio tapes and speeches, words are designed to be read-on book and magazine pages, on computer screens, even on product boxes. And how well those words are designed can greatly influence how often and closely they are read. To communicate effectively, good writers and editors must combine their words with good designs.
Gustafson, Jolene. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Writing>Visual Rhetoric
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What We Can Learn About Document Design From A Study of the Visual Convergence of the News Media
Information presentation trends that traverse media boundaries point to a visual convergence among print, television, and the web. Examination of how this process takes place through “remediation” in the news media provides insight into the broader media and cultural context in which technical documentation resides. Creating new knowledge for technical communicators who are beyond an elementary understanding of document design requires interdisciplinary research that investigates how usability is redefined in an age of visual convergence.
Cooke, Lynne. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric
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Where / What Vision Systems and Visual Design
You can increase the effectiveness of your visual web designs and graphics by getting a little understanding of two human vision systems.
Quinn, Heather. evolt (2005). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Visual
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Where the Visual Meets the Verbal: Collaboration as Conversation
If words follow pictures, as when a poet creates a poem in response to a work of art, then words become a way of seeing. Collaborations between verbal and visual artists produce such insights, regardless of whether the poet responds to the painter or the painter to the poet, since each is speaking in turn in the artistic dialogue which collaboration produces. Yet "Artistic practice and art history have not always looked favorably upon collaborations.
Miltner, Robert. Enculturation (2001). Articles>Collaboration>Visual Rhetoric
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As business communicators, our goal is typically to influence opinion or change behavior in order to achieve business objectives. To accomplish this, we must get people to interact with our message. A page of 12-point Times New Roman text is seldom compelling, so what you are left with to persuade people to read your publication is graphic design.
Canfield, Jocelyn. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Design>Document Design>Typography>Visual Rhetoric
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Why Illustrations Aid Understanding
A small collection of illustrations is provided to show some of the diverse ways illustration may aid understanding. The display of parts and assemblies often relies on techniques such as explosions and canonical views to communicate the global structure and relations of a system that may have hidden pieces. Book illustrations exemplify specific visions of described situations and allow readers to save memory and summarily review potentially complex descriptions. Visual proofs abstract from details and embody reliable metatheories that provide semantic guarantees for inferences. And conceptual illustrations when effective rely the logical method of universal generalization to help viewers grasp general ideas.
Kirsh, David. IWM-KMRC. Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Visual Rhetoric
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Words into Pictures: Applying Visual Thinking to Online Documentation
How can writers enhance their visual literacy in order to create effective online documentation? By partnering multimedia production expertise with technical writing expertise, DVS Communications and Bell-Northern Research (BNR) have co-developed an introductory course 'Words into Pictures' that stimulates visual thinking capabilities. This paper describes the main components of the course and illustrates its contribution to the success of BNR's online information system CADHELP.
Couse, Mary M., Malcolm W.J.F. Graham and Louis W. Stokes. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Online>Visual Rhetoric
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Writing and Designing for the Web (573G)
This class focuses on effective writing and design for online environments--with particular emphasis on the Web. While grounded in relevant theory, this course has a workshop format, with an emphasis on hands-on, collaborative learning.
Krause, Tim. Metropolitan State University (2005). Academic>Courses>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric
