Visual Rhetoric: A vidcast lecture brought to you by Dan Liddle in cooperation with the Purdue Online Writing Lab.
Whether you need to analyze a set of images or visual materials or you need to enhance your own visual designs
you need a working knowledge of what's called "Visual Rhetoric."
The visual part of Visual Rhetoric deals with everything you see when you look at a particular image.
From the color, to the arrangement, even to the choice in font.
The rhetoric portion of the term deals with persuasion
with how those visual elements persuade the viewer to think, or act in a particular way
Therefore, when we think about visual rhetoric, we ask about both what we see when we look at a document, an image, or an object
as well as how the design of what we see makes the audience think or act in specific ways
For example, this advertisement was designed with the intent of getting you to buy a hamburger
using the careful design of a few visual elements
The first thing we might notice is the picture of the burger
which takes up half of the total ad and is located at the top of the ad
The size attracts the focus of the viewer, forcing the viewer to linger on the image before moving on to the text
The position at the top of the image directs the viewer to read the image in a top-down fashion
which connects to the dominant reading style of most American texts.
From these visual elements we can tell that this advertisement was designed
so that, even in a single glance, the average viewer realizes that this is an advertisement for a hamburger
and that this burger is supposed to be very large
We might now move on to the second largest part of the image
which is the three words below the burger
These words also take up a large portion of the image
and are written in all capital letters
Both of these characteristics reinforce what is going on in the image above.
which is the idea that this is a very large burger
Moving on, we can see that the majority of the text is located at the bottom of the image
Here the advertisement tells us about what kinds of ingredients there are in the sandwich,
and the quality of those ingredients.
Because this information is located at the bottom of the image
and in a much smaller font, it is clear that this information is less important to the audience
than the overall size of the burger
Therefore, this advertisement is effective for a viewer who is more concerned with the quantity
of the food than the quality of the food
which is one way to think about fast food, but certainly not the only way
Depending on the audience, other fast food companies might focus on things like
special ingredients, on being healthy, or fast, or cheap
and each of these messages will be reflected in the visual rhetoric that's used to sell the product.
But visual rhetoric is not only useful for talking about things you might analyze (like an advertisement)
but for the kinds of documents you might create in your everyday life.
For example, imagine that you have noisy neighbors
who play loud music into the night
So you decide to write them a note to get them to quiet down after a certain time.
To start, you write the note quickly in pen and post it to your neighbor's door.
Overall, this note is not very substantial and, stepping back, you worry that your neighbors might not take it seriously
since it does not look like much time or effort went into creating it.
So, in order to be more forceful, you might scribble over each of the letters to make them look more passionate and bold.
But now you might worry that this note is too angry-looking for your purposes.
After all, you want to get your point across to your neighbors, but not to make them feel threatened.
So you write the note again, but in a careful, cursive font.
and this time you write a paragraph or two to give the impression that your grievance has been carefully thought out
But, stepping back from this note, you realize the note gives the impression that you've put almost
too much thought and effort into the note.
and perhaps that you don't have enough courage to be direct and forceful with your complaint.
So you go back to the drawing board, this time typing the note on your computer.
But even without handwriting, you are still presented with a wide array of design choices
that will influence the construction of your note.
Do you write in all capital letters?
Do you write in bold? Do you take up a whole sheet of paper?
Do you write in multiple paragraphs?
Each of these choices is an example of visual rhetoric.
However you choose to write your note, you will give your neighbors an impression
of who you are and what you're asking before they even begin reading your note
The same principles hold true to your academic writing.
except, instead of your next door neighbor, your audience is your teacher.
and instead of convincing your audience to turn down the music
you're trying to convince them of your credibility and your effort.
Certainly, your teacher will probably give you a set of specific guidelines
for font, color, and other features of visual rhetoric that influence your academic writing.
but this makes it no less important to manage the visual rhetoric of your document.
In one glance, your professor will compare visual elements of your paper to their mental standard
making judgments based on whether your size, spacing, and font meets the requirements.
subconsciously grading you before even reading the text.
Of course, this kind of automatic evaluation isn't the only function of rhetoric in your academic writing.
In the future, you might ask your professors why they assign the formatting requirements that they do
listening for their treatment of visual rhetoric.
Learning about visual rhetoric can be a valuable tool.
both for the analysis of visual elements and for designing effective visuals of your own.
Be sure to check out other resources at the Purdue OWL
for more information on visual analysis and design.
This has been a presentation of visual rhetoric, a vidcast lecture brought to you by Dan Liddle
in cooperation with the Purdue Online Writing Lab.