USING VISUALS

Visuals, like written texts, make arguments. Just as we can analyze written texts to improve our understanding of rhetorical theory, so too can we describe the persuasive acts of visual images in order to understand their workings. We can use many of the same questions to evaluate written texts that we use to evaluate visual images.

In order to arrive at a thesis statement about the way a visual makes an argument and its effectiveness, we can ask ourselves a series of questions related to its rhetorical workings:

Rhetorical Context

Where did the image originally appear? Who was its original audience? If you are not part of this original audience, how do you differ from it?

What was the image's original rhetorical purpose? How do its current effects differ from those purposes?

Visual

What first impression does this create? What is the dominant impression? What adjectives would you use to describe this picture? Why?

When you look at this image closely, what details do you notice? Upon further examination, do details of the image support the first impression?

Analyze the composition of the picture - the objects, their positions and the color scheme. How do these contribute to the persuasive message?

Appeals

How does the image appeal to logos? Articulate the logos premises that these visual details embody and determine if the are successful appeals.

How does it create ethos? Whom does it represent? Who stands to benefit from its persuasive message? Who stands to lose?

How does the image appeal through pathos? What emotions in the audience does it attempt to rouse? How does it do this? Why does it do this?

 

Questions? Please call 405-744-6671 during open office hours
or email us at writingcenter@okstate.edu.

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