Transcript Quijano – Visual Communication Presentation

Visual Rhetoric
A reading presentation of two texts
Prepared by Johansen Quijano
As a partial requirement for
Dr. Zhang’s course
Pedagogy of Technical Writing
Charles Kostelnick’s
The Rhetoric of Text Design in Professional
Communication





Visual rhetoric in technical
communication
Intra-textual structure of documents
Inter-textual structure of documents
Supra-textual structure of documents
Typographical considerations
What Involves
Visual Rhetoric?





Architectural design as a vehicle for
communication
Product design as a form of rhetoric
Visual elements as rhetorical figures
How pictures communicate meaning in
specific situational contexts
“Rhetoric of neutrality” of modern
information design
The purpose of the piece




“to elaborate on some rhetorical aspects of
text design and on how contextual variables
influence visual communication.” (189)
Desktop publishing is changing the nature
of practical communication
Professional communicators have access to
a variety of typographical tools
Any discussion of the rhetoric of practical
documents must encompass the language
of visual design
Question 1


Kostelnic states that visual elements are at
least as important as linguistic elements in a
document.
Do you think that typographical and visual
considerations in a document are as
important as Kostelnic makes them out to
be, or are they things that take a secondary
roles to linguistic considerations?
Intra-textual structure of
documents






Visual language reinforces, and
sometimes reshapes, the rhetoric of
the linguistic message.
Please check all of your pressure valves before you begin.
Please check all of your pressure valves before you begin.
Please check all of your pressure valves before you begin.
Please check all of your pressure valves before you begin.
Please check all of your pressure valves BEFORE you begin.
Does this contextual variable change the message?
Inter-textual structure of
documents

Text is structured through alphanumeric
cues like:
– headings and numbers
– spatial cues like distributions of text
– graphic cues like bullets and arrows

Rhetorical Strategies:
– Location of bullets:
pattern heightens textual elements
– Parallelism among items assign
equal value to each item
Supra-textual structure of
documents




These changes affect the document globally from page to page and
section to section.
Section titles
Icons
Page headers
Page colors
Tabs
Textures
Page size
Marks.
Placement of extra-textual elements
Orientation
To create visual hierarchies, you could use dividers or title pages by
section.
Typographical considerations must always take into account audience expectations and
desired effect of the text on the audience. However, they are also based on aesthetic
values.
Do we want the familiarity of Courier or Times New Roman? Do we want the “low key”
and “neutral” tone of Helvetica? Or do we want to be fancy?
Question 2

Which of the three textual structures
of documents do you think is the most
important? Why?
Question 3

Regarding typography:
What typeface do you prefer? Why?
Think of a specific instance of
technical communication. Which
typeface would you use for that
situation? Why?
Anne Frances Wysocki’s
The Multiple Media of Texts: How Onscreen and
Paper Texts Incorporate Words, Images, and
Other Media





What counts as visual elements?
How do we transmit meaning?
Fonts as rhetorical elements
Categories for Analysis
An approach for analyzing texts
What counts as visual
elements?

The visual presentation of a page
or screen give you an immediate
sense of genre.
–

All page and screen based texts
are visual, and their visual
elements can be analyzed.
–

hidden vs celebrated visual
elements
The visual elements and
arrangement of a text perform
persuasive work.
–

academic writing vs comic books
Company Logo
Attitudes towards visual elements
of texts change over time
–
illuminated vs print vs online
Question 4

Can you think of any other visual
elements in a text?
How do we transmit
meaning?







Paragraphs
Drawings and Paintings
Charts and Graphs
Video
Animation
Visual Transitions and links
Sound
Question 5

Which of the forms that are used to
transmit meaning do you find the most
useful? Why?
Fonts as Rhetorical
Elements

Roman Typefaces are meant to imitate quill and
ink:
– Times New Roman
– Garamond
– Baskerville

Modern typefaces were designed in the 18th
century and were meant to reflect
enlightenment thought. The focus was on thin
strokes:
– Bodoni
– Bodoni Condensed
Fonts as Rhetorical
Elements - Continued

Egyptian typefaces have no
curving transitions into serifs:
– Courier New

Sans Serif Typefaces were meant to reflect
the “practicality” of industrialization by
removing serifs:
– Arial
– Estrangelo Edessa
–
Questions 6 and 7


Which typeface do you find the most
useful for technical documents? Why?
Do you think different typefaces
should be used for different
documents? How so?
Categories for Analysis




Title page or screen
What is on the page or screen
(content)
What helps readers make connections
between multi-paged texts
What “contains” the page or screen
An Approach for Analyzing
the Visual Aspects of Texts



Name the visual elements of a text
Name the design relationship between
those elements
Consider how these elements connect
with different audiences, contexts, and
arguments
Question 8

How would you modify the visual
rhetoric analysis assignment to fit your
own classroom?
Any questions or
comments?

Post them below!