Visual rhetoric: document design
“Visual rhetoric” is a relatively new term. It has its origin in the analysis specifically of images, but now has a wider range of meanings that includes the use of images as argument, document design (including font choices), and the analysis of visuals.
You can see in the diagram below that visual rhetoric is often thought of as a subcategory of visual literacy, which includes visual thinking, visual learning, and visual rhetoric and communication. The complexities of visual rhetoric are not our focus, but being aware of them can help you to think more deeply about the impacts of visual literacy on communication.
For our purposes, think of visual rhetoric as document design and the choice and use of visuals (images, graphs, charts, etc.).
**The graphic comes from Purdue University’s “Introduction to Visual Rhetoric,” from Sandra Moriarty’s diagram in her essay, “A Conceptual Map of Visual Communication” and from “Teaching Visual Literacy and Document Design in First-Year Composition” (MA Thesis) by Allen Brizee. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/visual_rhetoric/visual_rhetoric/index.html
This unit is an introduction to and overview of some very basic principles of document design in general, though the line between document design and the use of visuals is impossible to draw distinctly. These notes are intended only to highlight some of the basic, general principles you will find articulated in more detail in our text. Some of you will be familiar with these, some not. As you can imagine, there are many resources available to you on these subjects both online and in print form, but your best resource is probably yourself. You’ve all, no doubt, experienced the irritation of a poorly designed document (website?). When that happens next, ask yourself what, specifically, the problem is.
The importance of one these general principles, the use of white space, is very easy to demonstrate. Let’s take part of the paragraph immediately above and repeat it, without using any white space, typographical features, or punctuation at all. You’ll get the point immediately:
thesenotesareintendedonlytohighlightsomeofthebasicgeneralprinciplesyouwillfindarticulatedinmoredetailinourtextsomeofyouwillbefamiliarwiththesesomenotasyoucanimaginetherearemanyresourcesavailabletoyouonthesesubjectsbothonlineandinprintformbutyourbestresourceisprobablyyourselfyouveallnodoubtexperiencedtheirritationofapoorlydesigneddocumentwebsitewhenthathappensnextaskyourselfwhatspecificallytheproblemis
The point, of course, is that you can read this, but a) you really don’t want to and, b) it would take you some time to do so. The absence of any kind of white space to demarcate boundaries between linguistic units (words, phrases, clauses, sentences), combined with the absence of any of the graphic devices we commonly use in writing, such as capital letters and punctuation, to reinforce those boundaries and perform other linguistic signaling functions, acts to make writing extraordinarily difficult to decode.
Document design is not about decoration; document design is about using graphic and design elements to guide your reader through a task or toward an understanding
Here, we will consider how to apply basic design principles to the layout, organization, and appearance of a document. We can start with the overriding basic principle above (one which applies equally to visuals): document design is not about decoration; it is about using graphic and design elements to guide your reader through a task or toward an understanding. In other words, it is and should be reader focused. Reviewing RLC, Chapter 3, and the examples therein will provide you with a good, clear introduction to specific points under this general principle. Here are the most important ones:
use blank (empty) space on a page/inside a graphic to create emphasis, to highlight information that you want your reader to notice, through separation (this is referred to as using “external spacing” or white space; see RLC, pp. 68-70)
headings work the same way, by chunking information into discrete, manageable bits; notice, however,
the need to limit the use of FULL CAPS WHICH TEND TO HIDE THE SHAPES OF INDIVIDUAL WORDS AND SO MAKE YOUR PROSE MORE DIFFICULT FOR YOUR READER TO READ, and
the caution against using multiple fonts (both as to style and size) in a document. Doing this tends to create a false, and potentially misleading, sense of contrast for your reader (see also “contrast,” below)
justification: most business communications use ragged right margins (or left-justified text); full justification has its place, but not in the assignments in this course; titles and headings may be centre-justified (see RLC, p. 65, and “alignment,” below)
colour: be very careful with your use of colours because their significance (to a given reader) is heavily culture-dependent (see RLC, pp. 73-4)
The basic design principles that can work to improve the visual impact of any document are contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.
Contrast means using conventions of typography, layout, colour, or other visual elements to make the content readily accessible. Contrast is one of the best tools for making a document easy to read and easy to follow. It could mean using dark text on a light background, or using bold, italics, or colour to make main points stand out. It could mean using a different font or capital letters to make headings clear.
Repetition includes the repeated use of elements to help reader recognize where they are in the document. Repetition is one of the simplest and most powerful formatting techniques to create accessible and attractive documents. Using a consistent style for headings and subheadings helps the reader recognize where the major and minor sections of the document begin and end. Icons can indicate recurring tips or other features.
Alignment refers to the positioning or placement of text and other elements on a page. Alignment helps to make your document look planned. Keeping blocks of text in line, or justified, in the same way from one section to another, makes a document look more organized. Text can be left-, right-, or centre-justified. Text can also be fully justified, but this can sometimes present awkward spacing problems.
Proximity is the concept of similar elements appearing together, while other elements that are not similar are separated from each other by space or other means. The principle of proximity is another simple principle that can be used to have a great effect in making a document easier to read and making information easily accessible.
A note on fonts
serif fonts (e.g., Times New Roman) have “tails” and ‘”feet” (serifs) at the ends of the larger strokes that make up each letter (the main text here and in the textbook is a serif font)
sans serif fonts (e.g., Arial and Calibri) do not have serifs (as this text in Arial)
Which should I use? Generally, serif fonts are to be preferred in professional documents that are written on hard copy, and sans serif fonts are to be preferred in professional documents that will be read on a screen.
How many fonts should I use? Not many. RLC recommend no more than two, and if you feel you must use two, using one serif font and one sans serif font. In a written document (hard copy), the serif font could be the main text and the sans serif font could be used for titles and headings. In general, stick with the tried and true. A font (or multiple fonts) that draws attention to itself – something like this, or worse – is noise.
No assignments in this course should have full-justified text (even though RLC say that it “may create a more formal or traditional look for a report or book” [65]).
Layout
A good layout helps the reader easily move through a document. The main considerations in layout are reading patterns, the possible use of grids (especially when trying to use both text and visuals in a document), spacing (and this includes negative [or unoccupied space]), and margins.
The eye movements of readers have been said to follow either a Gutenberg diagram or a Z-pattern. The Gutenberg diagram basically assumes a diagonal movement from top left to bottom right, and the Z-pattern ought to be self-explanatory. The main difference between the Gutenberg diagram and the Z-pattern is that the Gutenberg diagram assumes the reader will attend to the beginning and ending of the document more than anything else, spending little time on the content in between. Exhibits 3-5 and 3-6 in the textbook illustrate how both the Gutenberg diagram and Z-pattern can be applied to a routine message. In either case, for our purposes, we can be certain that “the most visually important areas of your documents are the beginning and ending points” (67). Because that’s true, the most important information of a document should be at the beginning and the end.
Remember, though, that these reading patterns are culturally dependent.
However, online text does have some different considerations to keep in mind. For example, “Jakob Nielsen … has found that online readers read an average of 20 percent of words on a page” (75). Online readers scan more than they follow the Gutenberg or Z-patterns of print readers. Nielsen found that online readers follow more of an “F” pattern, meaning that the most important parts of the document change when it’s presented online. In fact, the whole of the purpose of online documents is a little different: users are not there to read, but rather to scan for the information they need to accomplish some task. The difference may be subtle, but keep in mind what users of your online documents might wish to do: make it easy for them to find the items they can (and will) want to act upon. The textbook calls this “task-focused reading.” When thinking, therefore, about the layout of an online document, consider the top horizontal stroke of the “F” as the place to locate the most important information: information of secondary importance comes next, and information of the least (or tertiary) performance comes at the end. Here, the principle is quite different from documents that will be read in print format.
Note on ethics
What are arguments for and against what is often called “the fine print” in an advertisement or contract? Is it ethical to hide details in the so-called fine print, that is, to mention exceptions and exclusions that might make the offer less appealing? Discuss in the comment section below.
Grammar: the paragraph
Readings
For this week, read or re-read CWH, Section 2; RLC, pp. 153-9. Remember that the final grammar quiz is this week. A somewhat useful review tool is the diagnostic in RLC, pp. A-31 to A-34.
Argument
In this final grammar lesson, we will begin to articulate some basic principles that attempt to answer the question: “How can I ensure that my document as a whole will clearly communicate my intended message?” Once we’ve thought about the overall intended message, we can look at some smaller units of that message, the paragraph.
First, and foremost, you need a thesis, a controlling idea that provides a specific focus both for you, as you first compose and then revise a document, and (as or more important) for your reader. Think back to the our three laws: you are trying to communicate a message to a reader for a specific purpose. If that purpose is not clearly articulated in and through the words that comprise that message, you’ve failed in your purpose. When thinking about your thesis or argument, remember that all professional documents should contain (with some variation on account of overall purpose and genre) in a form clearly apparent to your reader, a statement or proposition of the following form:
You should believe/do/not do/accept/reject [X; whatever the thing/idea is]
because
reasons (1; 2; 3 – however many are required), supported by evidence
This statement or proposition, which is the controlling idea governing the content and structure of the entire document, need not be stated in so many words. The point is that a statement of this kind must either be clearly articulated or at the least easily deducible by your reader(s). When you’ve finished working on a draft of any document, and you think you’ve got it in final form, going back to see if your overall discussion either contains (and conforms to) such a proposition or at the least conforms to such a proposition implicitly is a good idea. This is a way to check that your purpose, the goal with which you began to write, made it intact into your message.
This requirement applies equally to documents which are purely informative and those that contain a stronger persuasive (an argument, a proposal) element: in either case, the absence of a clear, workable, controlling idea will inevitably result in problems with coherence. So, let’s look at an example of what would be an informative topic, and develop a thesis out of it. Suppose the topic is the interaction between people and wild animals living in close proximity to one another. The topic by itself is not enough, simply because it does not in and of itself provide a focus for a discussion. We need to take that topic and develop a statement that will say something significant about it and help us generate a framework for that discussion that will enable us to make it coherent. A possible informative thesis (for an essay or a paragraph) might be as follows:
The spread of the suburbs has created new habitats for wild animals that can adapt to living near people, such as coyotes, raccoons, and Canada geese.
Notice how this focuses the subject by narrowing it, and suggests a string of sub-topics for paragraphs, each of which in turn will then clearly relate to, and be a development of, the thesis. Such sub-topics might include the following:
the spread of suburbs
where/how are suburbs creating new habitats?
and for what kinds of animals?
how do these animals adapt to living near people?
how do people adapt to living near/with these animals?
what are some of the consequences of this interaction?
what are some of the problems arising from those consequences?
Or, we could switch things up and create a persuasive thesis from this same topic:
Many communities are finding the presence of large numbers of Canada geese more than a nuisance. The question is, what can be done about the problem? Various communities have tried different methods for reducing the numbers of geese. Some have even resorted to slaughter. I will argue that even if their first efforts were unsuccessful, communities should continue to develop methods for discouraging Canada geese instead of killing them.
Again, we’ve focused the subject, and suggested a string of sub-topics for paragraphs:
history/description of community reaction
examples of above
focus: slaughter examples
why not slaughter?
examples of the various methods to discourage/reduce numbers
evidence for possibility of success with discouragement
effective enough to make slaughter unnecessary
conclusion reinforcing thesis
Paragraph
Now, we need to carry this basic principle into the development of paragraphs. Again, we can articulate a basic principle at this level: each paragraph needs its own thesis or controlling idea (traditionally, the “topic sentence”) to generate focus, coherence, and unity both within and between the several paragraphs that constitute an entire document. The easiest way to see this at work is through an example. Here’s an example of a very short (around 250 words), cohesive, coherent essay with a strong thesis/controlling idea and strong paragraphing controlled by that thesis:
The metaphor of the “Information Superhighway,” popularized by Al Gore in the 1990s, sprang from a long-standing American myth about the freedom of the open road. Throughout the twentieth century, the personal car/truck represented freedom of action – not just the pleasures of driving around aimlessly for recreation but the possibility of exploring new territories and reaching the frontier. When talking about the Internet, both Republicans and Democrats in the 1990s invoked the idealized highway of the American imagination – the highway that leads to the frontier.
Exploration of the frontier is linked to democracy in this rhetoric. From Thomas Jefferson onward, American leaders have maintained that good roads are a prerequisite to democracy. By the end of the nineteenth century, good roads were the people’s answer to the hated railroad monopolies depicted by Frank Norris in The Octopus. With good roads, farmers could transport their crops directly to local markets and competitive railheads. When the Interstate system was proposed, it was advanced as a means of connecting the nation, stimulating the economy, and eliminating poverty in Appalachia and other regions that lacked good roads.
The “Information Superhighway” metaphor thus associated the economic prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s facilitated by new highways with the potential for vast amounts of commerce to be conducted over the Internet.
Notice, in this example, the following:
the repetition of central terms/phrases/motifs (underlined for you) so that readers can track development of ideas within/between paragraphs and, always, back to the thesis
the internal development: the relationship between “Information Superhighway” and “frontier myth” in the first paragraph leads to “frontier myth” to “roads” to “(free market) economy” in the second paragraph, which leads (back) to “Information Superhighway” to the “new (virtual) economy/new (virtual) highway” in the third paragraph
the superimposition of another organizational pattern: chronological. The exposition begins in the near-present, moves back to the distant past (eighteenth century), then forward first to the early twentieth century, mid-twentieth century, late twentieth century, then the present and, finally, anticipates future developments
Again, the point of doing this is to create a structure the reader can follow, so that she/he stays on track with the discussion. The net result, here, is both coherence (within each paragraph and within the document as a whole), and cohesion (each paragraph is clearly related to each other paragraph and to the document as a whole).
Paragraphs need (at least!) three things:
1) a single theme or idea (as in the second paragraph above with its focus on “good roads”); to put this another way, recall that RLC say each paragraph is like a message in miniature: what is each paragraph’s “strategic purpose”?
2) an overall structure (a beginning, a middle, and an end)
3) a connection of ideas; that is, a logical flow from sentence to sentence, obviously connected to overall structure, but at a slightly more focused level that includes transitions from sentence to sentence
The topic sentence
The CWH has a section on topic sentences that you should review (pp. 17-19). Grammar Quiz #3 contains a section on topic sentences. Remember the advice from the CWH: “A good topic sentence indicates what the paragraph will be about. It is a promise that the rest of the paragraph fulfills” (17). In other words, nothing that appears in a paragraph should (normally) deviate unexpectedly from the topic sentence. A topic sentence has other functions (transition; situating the new paragraph among the old and those still to come) as well, and a skilled writer can move a topic sentence all around a paragraph to achieve different effects.
A topic sentence can be good in how it fulfills its functions while at the same time not being a great topic sentence. What does that mean? Often, people will open an essay or a paragraph with a very general observation. For example, “people have agonized over love since they first walked the earth.” This topic sentence is perfectly good at saying that the paragraph is going to address the pain of love, but the topic is far too general. What expressions of that pain will the paragraph and essay consider? Music? Still a bit general. Blues? Getting better, but the paragraph and essay must have a narrower focus than that. It could be one specific artist or a specific loss, say the death of a spouse to disease (such as TB).
Cohesion and coherence
One way to think about these two terms – cohesion and coherence – relative to one another and related to what we’ve said about paragraphs appears in a text we’ve mentioned before, Joseph Williams’ Style guide. Williams says that is that cohesion is making sure that your sentences have transitions: “Sentences are cohesive when the last few words of one sentence set up information that appears in the first few words of the next” (12th ed., p. 67). Coherence, on the other hand, applies more to the whole: “Coherence is when all the sentences in a piece of writing add up to a larger whole, the way all the pieces in a puzzle add up to the picture on the box” (12th ed., p. 69). The terms are not as important as the ideas they represent.
Make sure that your sentences transition smoothly from one to the next, make sure that all your sentences have a place in paragraphs with a clear purpose, and make sure that all your paragraphs have a place in a document with a clear argument.
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