Visual rhetoric (visuals)
Visuals
Turning now to visuals more specifically – the use of charts, tables, lists, images, and other devices within your text – we start with the same basic principle: reader focus. The point of using these kinds of devices is not decorative, but rather to help your reader:
to think through a task or to do something
to see a point being made in a discussion or argument
to take in information
to remember something
The incidental effect of using visuals is to make you look good when they work (!); the problem, of course, is that when they don’t serve any real purpose, you merely look pompous, silly, unserious, incompetent, or some combination thereof. So, the first question to answer is: when should you use graphics to present information or other visuals (e.g., images) to make a point?
The answer is when you want:
to deliver spatial information/relationships
to represent and organize statistical relationships
to produce a strong, immediate impact (on your reader)
to emphasize a main point made or argued in your text
Our text provides (pages 92ff) more detailed discussion, with examples, as to how the various kinds of graphics (charts, tables, graphs) differ, and how/when they each should be used. Here, we might note that tables should be used when you want/need your reader to identify exact values/numbers, whereas charts and graphs (note the difference) should be used to focus your reader’s attention on relationships
of part to whole (pie chart)
over time (line graph)
of comparison (bar chart)
of frequency/distribution (line graph or bar chart)
of correlation (line graph, bar chart, or dot graph)
The use of images (line drawings, photographs, and similar) is usually driven by the need to reinforce the authenticity or legitimacy of a point being made; to show an item or concept actually being used/playing a role; or to force your reader to focus on some specific visual detail(s).
Finally, for visuals in general, a checklist:
is its purpose clear?
does it have a title indicating that purpose?
is there a clear reference to it, and some discussion of it, in your text?
are units of measurement, or value, clear as to both quantity and what they denote?
if data are presented, is the source given (if not internal)?
is the visual’s organizational principle going to be clear to your reader?
Don’t forget the most important question about visuals: is the visual either necessary or useful to your reader’s understanding? The answer must be “yes.”
Skills-Building Exercises
Let’s look at Skills-Building Exercise #4 (a-d). Think about each before you click on the answer.
4a: Answer
4b: Answer
4c: Answer
4d: Answer
A final note on ethics
You may have heard the saying “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics.” This saying seems to have become popular in the late 19th century, though no one knows who said it first. Anyway, I bring it up now to say something about ethics and visuals.
RLC have a good section on “visual integrity” (pp. 124-8). The integrity here should be interpreted in two different ways: as a communicator, you should make sure that your integrity is reflected in your visuals (whether you are using statistics or not), meaning that your visuals can be interpreted “easily and accurately,” and that your visuals have integrity, meaning that we can sometimes make mistakes that skew the way a visual is interpreted.
The “Communication Matters” box on p. 128 has some key questions to ask yourself about your visuals. I won’t repeat them here, but I would like to stress two points. The first question to ask yourself about the visual, though this isn’t really a question of ethics, is this: “Is it necessary?” In other words, much as we said of communication generally, make sure you know the purpose of your visual. A visual shouldn’t be there simply because you thought you might want to add one (or your instructor asks you to add one to your assignment). Add a visual because it offers something: an easier way to appreciate data, a complement to the verbal information you’re presenting, etc. Think about the relationship between your message and the visual. The second question has to do with ethics (and your ethos): “Have I made the source of my visual easy to identify?” Make sure that the source of any data that isn’t obviously primary data (that is, data you’ve gathered yourself through questionnaires or studies or experiments) is clear. If you use images (of people, places, things, etc.), make sure that you identify the source of those images (if you are not yourself the creator of those images). If images aren’t clearly in the public domain, you need permission to use them.
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