SOTA: THEORY OF VISUAL RHETORIC IN 1 ST YEAR COMP CLASSES Suzanne Webb February 27, 2007

1. SOTA:THEORY OFVISUAL RHETORICIN 1ST YEAR COMP CLASSESSuzanne WebbFebruary 27, 2007

2. 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.

3. COMMUNCATION

4. IN THE BEGINNING

5. DARKNESS WAS UPON THE FACE OF THE EARTH

6. AND MAN SAID

7. LET THERE BE COMMUNICATION

8. COMMUNICATION

9. AND MAN SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD

10. AND AERISTOTLE SAID

11. LET THERE BE RHETORIC

12. COMMUNICATION RHETORIC

13. AND MAN SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD

14. BUT MAN CAN’T LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE

16. RICH WHITE MEN MAKING BAD DECISIONS COMMU NICATION RHETORIC

17. BUT RICH WHITE MAN SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD

18. GOOD FOR THE RICH WHITE MAN

19. COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN

21. COMMUNICATION

22. IN WHAT WAYS DO WE COMMUNICATE?

23. TEXTUALY ORALLY VISUALLY ETHICALLY

24. “I’d like to introduce you to…” …an ongoing conversation which lies in between tech writing, visual rhetoric, graphic design, and first-year composition.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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

28. 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. Composition,Tech Writing, Visual Rhetoric, Rhetoric, Technology, Writing Technologies, Theory, Genre, Multimedia, Pedagogy, design Sean Williams

29. “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

30. “Hypertext provides a significant resource for teachers who wish to integrate 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.” Composition, Tech Writing, Visual Rhetoric, Rhetoric, Technology, Writing Technologies, Theory, Genre, Multimedia, Research, Pedagogy,design Self & Haiwisher

31. 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)

32. 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.” Composition, Tech Writing, Visual Rhetoric,Rhetoric, Technology, Writing Technologies, Theory, Genre, Multi-media, Pedagogy, design Ann Wysocki

33. “All design has social, moral, and political dimensions … that are conceptually, visually, and functionally appropriate for particular clients and audiences in particular environments”. Composition,Tech Writing, Visual Rhetoric,Rhetoric, Technology, Writing Technologies, Theory, Genre, Multimedia, Pedagogy,design Ehses, Hanno, Ellen Lupton.

34. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY DRPW 2007

35. 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.

36. 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).”

37. 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.”

38. 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.

39. 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…”

40. 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.

41. 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.

42. IN CONCLUSION

43. 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.

44. 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.

45. 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…

46. Afterall, aren’t we all just communicating?

47. May I take your questions?

48. THANK YOU