Transcript SOTA - Michigan State University

IN 1ST
SOTA:
THEORY OF
VISUAL RHETORIC
YEAR COMP CLASSES
Suzanne Webb
February 27, 2007
I will review the state of the art of
theory of visual rhetoric in 1st-year
comp classes and then, as part of
this review, give you, my audience,
a feel for what DRPW TAs are
currently teaching in WRA writing
courses at MSU.
COMMUNCATION
IN THE BEGINNING
DARKNESS WAS
UPON THE FACE
OF THE EARTH
AND MAN SAID
LET THERE BE
COMMUNICATION
COMMUNICATION
AND MAN SAW
THAT IT WAS
GOOD
AND AERISTOTLE
SAID
LET THERE BE
RHETORIC
COMMUNICATION
RHETORIC
AND MAN SAW
THAT IT WAS
GOOD
BUT MAN CAN’T
LEAVE WELL
ENOUGH ALONE
COMMU
RHETORIC
NICATION
BUT
RICH WHITE MAN
SAW
THAT IT WAS
GOOD
GOOD
FOR THE
RICH WHITE MAN
COMMUNICATION
BREAKDOWN
COMMUNICATION
IN
WHAT WAYS
DO WE
COMMUNICATE?
TEXTUALY
ORALLY
VISUALLY
ETHICALLY
“I’d like to introduce you to…”
…an ongoing conversation which lies in
between tech writing, visual rhetoric,
graphic design, and first-year
composition.
Look Who’s Talking
Stephen Bernhardt, Sam Dragga, Christina
Haas, Gail Haiwisher, Mary Hocks, Jim Porter,
Cynthia Selfe, Craig Stroupe, Patricia Sullivan,
Ann Wysoki, Kathleen Yancy, and (of course)
Gunther Kress.
And, lately, Lee Sherlock, Dundee Lackey,
Doug Walls, and Jim Ridolfo are entering the
conversation.
Ten years ago, the conversation seemed more
of controversy as educators wrestled with
conflicting ideas and a lack of empirical
research from tech-based writing classrooms.
Today, while certain educators remain skeptical,
many like-minded teachers teach that visual
rhetoric is rhetoric and therefore must be
stitched into the very fabric that holds first
year writing together.
“Words don’t simply
talk to words, but to
images, links,
horizontal lines [and
they] replicate …
verbal literacy.”
Composition,
Tech Writing, Visual Rhetoric,
Writing,
Theory, Genre,
Rhetoric, Technology,
Multimedia, Pedagogy
Craig Stroupe
Williams argues that
verbal and visual
media need to be
integrated into
composition
classrooms.
We as teachers should
be helping students
acquire skills in visual
literacy.
Tech Writing,
Visual Rhetoric, Rhetoric,
Composition,
Technology, Writing
Technologies, Theory, Genre,
Multimedia,
Pedagogy, design
Sean Williams
“Design projects …
bring the concept of
multi-literacy squarely
into the middle of the
composition process
[and] help students
design an activist
academic project that
represents new
knowledge for a real
audience.”
Composition, Tech Writing,
Visual Rhetoric,
Rhetoric, Technology,
Writing Technologies, Theory,
Multimedia, Research,
Pedagogy, design
Mary Hocks
“Hypertext provides a
Visual Rhetoric
significant resource for Rhetoric, Theory Writing
Multimedia
,
teachers who wish to
Pedagogy, design
integrate theory,
pedagogy, and technology.”
Composition, Tech Writing,
,
Technology,
Technologies,
, Genre,
, Research
“By its intersection with the very
nature of reading and writing …
hypertext offers help to students in
bringing together the acts of reading
and writing, both cognitively and
contextually.”
Self & Haiwisher
The "unified objective …
is to see and
comprehend the
communicative process
as a dynamic whole, to
create an awareness of
the interacting forces
that condition it at each
turn."
Composition, Tech
Writing,
Visual Rhetoric, Rhetoric,
Technology,
Writing,
Theory, Genre, Multimedia,
Research, Pedagogy, design,
Communication
George & Trimbur
(emphasis mine)
Tech Writing,
Wysocki questions
Visual Rhetoric Rhetoric,
Technology
“what is gained and
Theory Genre,
Multi-media
what is lost through
Pedagogy, design
any communication
practice (see Selfe and
Selfe), especially
as computer
technologies heighten
our awareness of
Ann Wysocki
the visuality of texts.”
Composition,
,
, Writing
Technologies,
,
,
“All design has social, Composition,
Visual Rhetoric Rhetoric,
Technology
moral, and political
Theory
dimensions … that are Multimedia,
Pedagogy, design
conceptually, visually,
and functionally
appropriate for
particular clients and
audiences in particular
environments”.
Tech Writing,
,
, Writing
Technologies,
, Genre,
Ehses, Hanno, Ellen Lupton.
MICHIGAN STATE
UNIVERSITY
DRPW
2007
Lee Sherlock
Science & Technology
Class is centered on digital games and digital and visual
rhetoric open up possibilities for writing and discussion
centered on those games. The visual, according to Sherlock,
gives students a place to begin discussion about how games
shape culture; how they construct cultural and social values.
Students design a game which involves many rhetorical
choices “many of which are visual (e.g., character design,
environment, Interfaces, etc.)”
Their research culminates in multimedia presentations and
workshops given to the rest of the class which too contains
many visual rhetorical elements.
Lee Sherlock
Science & Technology
Sherlock mentions his intent to bring in aural rhetoric, but
hasn’t been able to himself attain the necessary vocabulary to
host that discussion in the classroom just yet.
Ethically speaking, Sherlock discusses ethics of gameplay
in games such as Grand Theft Auto and mentions the duality
of this discussion. “This can be treated both at the level of
player ethics (are players being forced into it or do they become
complacent in an unethical situation) as it intersects with
cultural representation (whether or not this game is an ethical
portrayal of urban culture).”
Dundee Lackey
Science & Technology
Dundee Lackey assigns a hypertext argument in her 1st year
composition classes. This argument was the brainchild of Sean
Williams where students write from several different perspectives
and hyperlinks in their arguments take the readers instantly to those
alternative views.
Lackey also draws on the works of Ann Wysocki, Danielle DeVoss,
Gunther Kress, Paulo Frerie and belle hooks in her pedagogy.
She asks her students to
“Read the World.”
Dundee Lackey
Science & Technology
Students in Dundee Lackey’s classes are often asked to contribute
to the class wiki, which “gets them thinking about texts more
spatially and more visually.”
Lackey takes issue with these divisions within the field
and feels that dividing literacy and rhetoric hinder her pedagogy.
When asked about teaching visual rhetoric she replied, “isn’t the
alphabet visual?” She went on to discuss that rhetoric is part
of communication, and that writing is just communication.
Douglas Walls
Evolution of American Thought
Doug Walls on different “rhetorics:” “I am not sure the division
of rhetoric into channeled mediums is productive.”
Students in his writing class do produce “visual rhetoric”
insomuch, as Walls puts it, “all texts include visual aspects.”
Ethics in Walls’ course are “discussed in terms of Rhetorical Forum.
That is, the premise of the class is not that certain constructed
arguments are better than others, but that forums change and allow
for certain arguments, appeals, and evidence…”
Jim Ridolfo
American Radical Thought
Ridolfo advocates the use of “Affective Pedagogy” as coined by
Julie Lindquist where “the classroom itself is a rhetorical
situation.”
He looks at each classroom, and at each set of students as a new
rhetorical situation. Ridolfo feels that publicly rhetoricians accept
this situation as a given, but sometimes deny it in their
classrooms.
The student is the audience.
Jim Ridolfo
American Radical Thought
Ridolfo’s students incorporate the abilities to answer complex
research questions—historical mysteries discussed rhetorically—
and has them include visuals in their “standard academic texts.”
Visuals include headers, charts, pictures—where the student often
takes those pictures themselves as they do archival photography
using digital cameras.
Complex digital research skills are integrated into traditional
archival get-your-hands-dirty research and in doing so, students in
Jim Ridolfo’s American Radical Thought become experts on an
historical moment that probably they know better than anyone else.
IN CONCLUSION
Students must have a full report of communication
skills; this means they need to be able to recognize
rhetorical situations, to analyze them, to write to
them, to use visuals to support their writing, and they
need to be able to articulate themselves orally and
ethically about their decisions as well as about their
chosen subject matters.
This is no small task, but it is one that is
accomplishable—if we begin in 1st-year composition
classes.
It’s not only visual rhetoric, but
textual, oral, and ethical “rhetoric(s)”
which students need to grasp from
their 1st-year writing courses in order
to be the best communicators they
can be throughout their futures—
inside these walls of academia—and
beyond.
At Michigan State University, we teach
to the whole person and we teach the
whole art of communicating. The trends
are to bring literacies, critical thinking,
writing, composition, listening, seeing,
art, design, reading and writing all back
under the umbrella of rhetoric…
Afterall,
aren’t we all
just communicating?
May I take your questions?
THANK YOU