Resources for Teaching with Visuals

Feb 14 2007

Published by jmoore

A Meeting of Minds, 2^nd edition (Pearson Longman)

Chapter 5: Interpreting Words and Images
Callaghan and Dobyns present interpretation as process of inquiry that requires “observing the details of a work, analyzing patterns and relationships, [and] finding questions and drawing conclusions about specific details based upon shared assumptions” (127). They discuss strategies for: reading images for purpose and content, observing the rhetorical appeal of images, and describing the elements of visual images and observing their effects.

Chapter 10: Designing Documents
Callaghan and Dobyns also provide strategies for using visual features and images to appeal to specific audiences. In this chapter, they discuss designing documents with audience and purpose in mind. They also provide activities for analyzing document design choices; for example, one application activity asks students to compare the rhetoric and design of two web sites on voting and to evaluate their effectiveness (328).

Compose, Design, Advocate (Pearson Longman)

Chapter 9: About Visual Modes of Communication
Wysocki and Lynch introduce students to basic vocabulary, concepts and methods they can use to talk about “being as rhetorical with the visual aspects of texts as with the verbal” (263). Using extensive examples, the authors demonstrate how even choices about typography and arrangement can impact a writer’s success communicating with her audience.

The brief Thomson Handbook (Thomson Wadsworth)

Chapter 18: Using Visuals to Inform and Persuade (See Handout)
Blakesley and Hoogeveen compare how different forms of visual content (photographs, illustrations, charts and graphs, and design and layout elements) can serve different functions (inform, explain, clarify, prove, represent, show trends and relationships, direct the reader’s attention, convey tone, etc.). Their overview and introductory table could support activities analyzing the function of visuals in texts for different audiences and purposes (p. 307). They also discuss strategies for citing visual information.