Visual Rhetoric

Students must learn to:

• Analyze Text for bias using 
• Analyze characteristics of texts
• evaluate credibility

Four basic principles of design:

• • C Contrast attracts the attention of the reader/viewer
• • R Repetition develops the organization of work and creates recognition (person, brand)
• • A Alignment connects elements on the page to something else on the page
• • P Proximity groups related items, organizes information, and reduces clutter

The Rule of Thirds:

• • Analyze what is happening in each section of an image.

Signs or Symbols:

• • Almost everything is a sign or symbol.
• • Signs and symbols consist of two elements, a signifier or physical sign, and the signified, meanings of that sign.
• • When analyzing signs or symbols consider denotation, connotation, and, the combination of the two which create beliefs that are often demonstrably false.

Analyzing Advertisements:

• • Consider denotations, connotations, and related beliefs or assumptions
• • “See through” the advert to its broader social and cultural realities
• • Recognize the “creators” of adverts and consider their credibility

Analyzing Photographs:

• • Consider the photograph’s purpose
• • Consider what we know about the photographer and his/her credibility
• • Consider any cultural (ethnic or national) representation

Analyzing Charts:

• • Consider the chart’s purpose
• • Consider the chart’s source and the source’s credibility
• • Recognize that charts can help and argument or can weaken it