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Rhetoric and Visual Rhetoric for Professional Writers Using Rhetorical Principles and Art / Design Theory to Analyze Images What is Rhetoric? ? Rhetoric The Art of Persuasion The Arts and Rules of Effective Communication
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Rhetoric and Visual Rhetoric for Professional Writers Using Rhetorical Principles and Art / Design Theory to Analyze Images
Rhetoric • The Art of Persuasion • The Arts and Rules of Effective Communication • Aristotle: “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion.” • The Art of Speaking and Writing Effectively.
The Five Canons or Parts of Rhetoric • Invention inventio heurisis • Arrangement dispositio taxis • Style elocutio lexis • Memory memoria mneme • Delivery actio hypocrisis
The 3 Rhetorical Questions • Who is speaking to whom? • For what ostensible purpose? • Through what mask?
Audience Analysis • Who are my readers? • What do they know? • What do they need? • What are my readers’ purposes? • Information? • Online shopping? • Customer Service? • Interactive Order Forms?
Visual Rhetoric & Visual Literacy Ability to “unpack” images by using principles from: Classical Rhetoric Gestalt Principles of Visual Perception Principles from Art / Design Theory Color Line Shape Spatial relationships
Visual Rhetoric & Visual Literacy Understanding how to analyze images and their effect on viewers leads to the ability to manipulate images – figures, photographs, drawings, graphs – and the visual display of documents, so that you can effectively get your message across, so that you can persuade your audience to accept your point of view.
Classical Rhetoric: Aristotle’s 3 Modes of Argument, the entechnoi • Ethos • Logos • Pathos • Kairos
Gestalt Principles • Figure/Ground Segregation • Symmetry • Proximity • Closure
Conscious Manipulation • M. C. Escher
Art / Design Theory • Unity • Often achieved by repetition of color and shape • Emphasis or Focus • Where your eye is immediately drawn to • Balance • Symmetrical & Asymmetrical • Visual Rhythm • The “pattern” your eye makes as it moves from area to area on a visual field
Metaphorical Code of Color • Hot and warm colors -- those toward the Red end of the spectrum convey different emotional associations from • Cold and cool colors -- those toward the Blue end • Each color has negative and positive pathetic / emotional associations
Spatial Relationships & Affect • Triangular Relationships • Spirituality, aspiration • Rectangular or 4-square • Stability, groundedness, earthiness • Circular Relationships • Movement, fluidity, dynamism, completeness
Line & Emotional Impact • Vertical Lines • Strength, Power, Aspiration • Horizontal Lines • Calmness, Balance, Repose, Groundedness • Diagonal Lines • Tension, Movement, Direction • Real, Implied, Perspective, Gestural • Circular • Movement, Unity, Dynamism
Search for a Universal Grammar of Color and Shape Match the Primary Colors – Red, Blue, Yellow, With the Primary Shapes – Circle, Triangle, Square Kandinsky felt there must be some intrinsic match up – some universal code
The Four Contents • Formal Content Line, Color, Shape, Texture, Spatial Relations • Narrative Content Story, Allegory • Rhetorical Content Aristotle’s Appeals, 3 rhetorical questions • Expressive Content Combined effect of 1, 2, and 3. Effect upon viewer
Effective Communication for the 21st Century • Principles of Document Design • Technical Writing Studies • Principles from Art Theory • Color, Form, Spatial Arrangement • Principles from Rhetoric • The Rhetorical Situation • Aristotle’s Appeals • New Rhetorical Principles Will Evolve from the Old