SOTA:THEORY OF

VISUAL RHETORICIN 1ST 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 BECOMMUNICATION

COMMUNICATION

AND MAN SAWTHAT IT WAS GOOD

AND AERISTOTLE SAID

LET THERE BERHETORIC

RHETORIC

COMMUNICATION

AND MAN SAWTHAT IT WAS GOOD

BUT MAN CAN’T LEAVE WELL

ENOUGH ALONE

RHETORIC

RICHWHITEMENMAKINGBADDECISIONS

COMMU NICATION

BUTRICH WHITE MAN

SAWTHAT IT WAS GOOD

GOODFOR THE

RICH WHITE MAN

COMMUNICATIONBREAKDOWN

COMMUNICATION

INWHAT WAYS

DO WE COMMUNICATE?

TEXTUALYORALLY

VISUALLYETHICALLY

“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.

Composition,

Tech Writing, Visual Rhetoric,

Rhetoric, Technology, Writing,

Theory, Genre,Multimedia, Pedagogy

“Words don’t simply talk to words, but to images, links,

horizontal lines [and

they] replicate …

verbal literacy.”

Craig Stroupe

Composition, Tech Writing,Visual Rhetoric, Rhetoric,

Technology, Writing

Technologies, Theory, Genre,

Multimedia,

Pedagogy, design

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. Sean Williams

Composition, Tech Writing,

Visual Rhetoric,

Rhetoric, Technology,

Writing Technologies, Theory,

Multimedia, Research,Pedagogy, design

“Design projects …

bring the concept of

multi-literacy squarely

into the middle of the

composition process

[and] help students

design an activistacademic project that represents new knowledge for a real audience.”

Mary Hocks

Composition, Tech Writing,

Visual Rhetoric,

Rhetoric, Technology, WritingTechnologies, Theory, Genre,

Multimedia, Research,Pedagogy, design

“Hypertext provides asignificant resource forteachers who wish tointegrate theory,pedagogy, and technology.”

“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

Composition, Tech Writing,

Visual Rhetoric, Rhetoric,

Technology, Writing,Theory, Genre, Multimedia,

Research, Pedagogy, design,

Communication

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." George & Trimbur(emphasis mine)

Composition, Tech Writing,

Visual Rhetoric, Rhetoric,

Technology, Writing

Technologies, Theory, Genre,Multi-media,

Pedagogy, design

Wysocki questions

“what is gained and

what is lost through

any communication

practice (see Selfe and

Selfe), especially

as computer

technologies heighten

our awareness of

the visuality of texts.” Ann Wysocki

Composition, Tech Writing,

Visual Rhetoric, Rhetoric,Technology, Writing

Technologies, Theory, Genre,

Multimedia,Pedagogy, design

“All design has social,

moral, and political

dimensions … that are

conceptually, visually,

and functionally

appropriate for

particular clients and

audiences in particular

environments”.

Ehses, Hanno, Ellen Lupton.

MICHIGAN STATEUNIVERSITY

DRPW 2007

Lee SherlockScience & 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 SherlockScience & 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 LackeyScience & 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 LackeyScience & Technology

Students in Dundee Lackey’s classes are often asked to contributeto the class wiki, which “gets them thinking about texts morespatially 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 WallsEvolution 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 RidolfoAmerican 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 RidolfoAmerican 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