The Assignment

In this assignment, you will return to the issue you explored in assignments one and two, but this time you will focus your attention on a visual representation of the issue and determine how the image(s) structures the arguments about the issue. The goal of the assignment is to analyze the rhetorical features of an image within a historical and social context.

The importance of visual elements and design in arguments has grown immensely over the past decade. Much of this change can be attributed to the influx of computers in our workplaces and homes. Computers almost effortlessly allow even the most novice writers and editors to use visual elements and design features that were once only available to professional graphic designers. More importantly, our "information-age" culture seems to be increasingly oriented around visual media, making good text design an essential part of successful communication.

Since the Internet is a medium that relies on words and images working together to make meaning, I want you to focus your analysis on a website or on several sites that present arguments about the issue you've been investigating. Web designers must carefully consider how their visual choices affect their linguistic messages because these choices-even when made indiscriminately-have rhetorical consequences. Web site designers and Internet users are more likely to understand how they can persuade their own audience(s) and how they themselves are often affected as part of an audience by learning to critically read Web sites' visual elements. Those Web designers who are constructing sites without serious concern for their sites' visual components risk undermining their own arguments.

Goal:
The goal of this assignment is to analyze the appeals made by an image(s) and its corresponding written arguments, and thereby arrive at an understanding of (1) the argument of the visual representation of the issue, (2) the argument of the written representation of the issue, and (3) how these arguments relate to each other.

Composition:
The audience for this paper is the class. Your response to this assignment should enlarge our understanding of how the issue is represented visually. In other words, your analysis will demonstrate the ways in which visual choices affect linguistic messages. In your essay, be sure to consider the different "ways of seeing" the image: on its own; with or against the materials that surround it.

Because visual analyses consider the ways in which texts are affected by their visual aspects, you will need to move beyond considering the words in a text-its linguistic content-and also observe how its visual elements, such as graphics, typography, color, and placement, contribute to meaning. You might, for example, focus on features such as document design, the use of graphics, visual depictions of data, and so on.

And, because visual arguments, like written arguments, are "driven" by a rhetorical situation (audience, purpose, and context), it is important to "match" the visual communication of a document to the rhetorical situation.

For instance, below you will find an image from PETA's website www.peta.org and a brief analysis like the one I am asking you to engage in:




PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is the largest animal rights organization in the world, and an advocacy group that supports the fair and ethical treatment of all animals. PETA operates under the principle that "animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment."

PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms ,in laboratories, in the fur trade, and in the entertainment industry. They also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds and other "pests," and the abuse of backyard dogs. Members of the organization work through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, and direct action.

In making the case for animal rights, PETA often appeals to the emotions of pet owners and animal advocates by demonstrating how young calves used in the production of veal are housed and treated; by illustrating the use of vivisection; and by depicting images of abused animals.

In a recent campaign, PETA has begun advocating action plans for disaster preparedness. With the image of a dog in a gas mask, PETA is suggesting we treat our non-human companions with the same respect, care, and concern we offer our human friends. The purpose of this image is to call attention to the importance of considering the safety of animals as well as other members of your family. Many disaster preparedness programs focus of the safety of children, the elderly, and other human members of a household. Here, PETA is advocating that people make plans to protect animals in the case of emergencies, and they are using our current fear about terrorism and chemical and biological weapons to appeal to our concerns about our safety and the safety of those we love. Below this image they write:

With threats of terrorism looming large in the nation's consciousness, worried animal guardians wonder how best to protect their best friends. No, you don't need to go out and buy a gas mask for Fido. . . . But there are effective ways to prepare for disasters, the most important being to make arrangements ahead of time to ensure animals' safety in the event of evacuation. Fortunately, there are helpful resources to help you plan. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers excellent tips, a worksheet, even on-line courses about disaster preparation for animal guardians. Whether the emergency is a flood, fire, or human-made, evacuees should never assume that they will be able to return home soon, despite any assurances to the contrary. Take a moment now to make the following preparations, so you'll be ready for the worst. ( PETA "Disaster Planning")

The image is presented in muted colors: the dog with the gas mask is in black and white, while the lettering next to the image is presented in a muted brown. These colors are reminiscent of documentary disaster footage we have seen from earlier world wars; this stark presentation works in contrast to the full-blown, gore-fests we've become accustomed to in the late 20th century. Its understatement enables the viewer to imagine the horrific possibilities.

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Your response to the assignment, should, at minimum:
State the issue; represent the image; show the ways in which the image and text succeed in communicating the argument to the reader; address the internal arrangement of the image as well as its relations with other elements on the page; and demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the complicated interrelations between image and argument-an understanding that should inform the argument of your essay.

1. Using one of the many search engines linked from our class homepage, do a search for websites devoted to the issue you've been investigating. After examining several sites, choose one or two sites and work through the questions below:
   
   
2. To get started, jot down your personal response to the site:
   • What caught your eye about it?What did you first notice?
   • Where were you when you first saw it?
   • Did anything surprise you when you looked more closely at it?
   • Do you notice a relationship between the image and any written materials?
     
     

   Look back over your responses and determine which site offers you the best opportunity for analysis.
   
   

3. In order to understand an image as an argument, you will need to examine the rhetorical appeals through which the image speaks to its readers. Begin by addressing the following in response to the image:
   

• What is the rhetorical stance?
• What are some of the techniques used to attract the image?
• How are conjectures represented in the image, and to what end?
• How are values represented in the image, and to what end?
• How are facts presented, and to what end?
• In what ways are individual persons who are not the explicit subjects of the text either quoted or described?

4. When you think about the image in relation to an argument, you might start with basic questions:

• What is most striking about the image?
• What initial impressions does it provoke?
• What version of reality does the image depict?
• What are the points of overlap between the image and conjectures and values you have identified with regard to this issue?

5. After developing some ideas about the image, take a more systematic approach by writing answers to the questions in chapters 13 & 14 of Good Reasons. This will help you generate some materials for your essay. (But remember: you don't have to find a place for all these answers in your essay!)