eHandout for Roundable Presentation

Abstract:

           

The theory that great composition can be taught by great reading is one that is apparent in the discussion of rhetoric and composition dating back through to Aristotle’s time. These theories, the pedagogies they’ve led to, and the idea of the "digital native" are derived from the same belief: modeling translates to production. If you are exposed to a specific type of composition, you will “pick up on” the skills necessary to turn around and produce a composition in the same medium. The lack of real composition instruction in modeling theories, along with the discussion of literacy definitions and expansions (complete and incomplete), the rhetorical treatment of the visual throughout the history of formal rhetoric and the relationship between the visual and the verbal show that visual rhetoric is important; however, it has always been supportive of the verbal instead of being treated as a valuable communication tool in and of itself. Therefore, it is missing an important piece of the communication process: production. Most students in college composition courses are not being asked to produce visual images that stand on their own. It is being assumed that anything you could say visually could also be said verbally instead of giving students access to all “available and unavailable means” Instructors should not be assuming that analysis and modeling equates to competence in students in regard to visual rhetoric because it perpetuates the “teaching in a vacuum” that composition in school is often accused of and creates an incomplete vision of literacy.

References:

Aristotle. On Rhetoric. Trans. George A Kennedy. New York: Oxford UP, 1991.

Brumberger, Eva. “Visual Literacy and the Digital Native: An Examination of the Millennial Learner.” Journal of Visual Literacy. 30.1(2011): 19-46. Web. 

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George, Diana. "From Analysis to Design: Visual Communication in the Teaching of Writing."College Composition and Communication. 54.1 (2002):11-39. 18 Sept. 2011.Web. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1512100 .>

Hill, Charles, A. “Reading the Visual in College Writing Classes.” Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World. Ed. Carolyn Handa. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004. 107-130. Print. 

Hobbs, Catherine L. "Learning from the Past: Verbal and Visual Literacy in Early Modern Rhetoric and Writing Pedagogy." Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World. Ed. Carolyn Handa. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004. 55-70. Print.

Prensky, Marc. “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.” On the Horizon. 9.5 (2001):1-6. Web. 20 Sept. 2011.

Whately, Richard. “Elements of Rhetoric.” The Rhetoric of Blair, Campbell and Whately.  Eds. James Golden and Edward Corbet. Southern Illinois University, 1990: 273-396.

Wysocki, Anne. “awaywithwords: On the possibilities in unavailable designs.” Computers and  Composition. 22(2005): 55–62. 10 Oct. 2011. Web. <10.1016/j.compcom.2004.12.011>