"Words or Visuals: Which Speaks Louder?"

About the Author

Jennifer Heater is an undergraduate at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, MO. She is working towards her Bachelors in English with a Technical Writing concentration and is minoring in Communications. She anticipates graduating in Spring 2014 and then continuing her education seeking her Masters in Technical Communication. Although Jennifer is fairly new to the Technical Communication field, she is excited about her research and hopes to continue it throughout her Masters.

Contents

Introduction

Goals of Typology

Metafunctions

Tables

Conclusion

Works Cited

C. S. Peirce’s Three Rhetorical Goals of Typology

The first typology goal is decorative and it evokes feelings from the reader. The uses of fonts, color, type, and placement are a few examples of types of decorative goals. Allen addresses the same point of view by stating, “Information can be included but, in effect, concealed by its placement in a document, as well as by the type of graphic used to display it, or by the visual impression created by the whole” (96). Using too much color or variations in font can distract the reader from the message of the document. There is a good chance that the ethics of a writer can be compromised if the message that the writer is trying to make is confused because of overuse of decorative goals or improper placement of visual media. It is important for technical communicators to remember to try to reach the goal intended for the article by choosing and placing visual media that compliments the article and avoids distracting elements.

Peirce identifies the second rhetorical goal as the indicative goals. Indicative goals provoke action. Indicative goals in a document will guide the reader to actions that help the reader see the key information on the document. There is a chance that at some point during school, we all had to prepare a PowerPoint document for a class and are familiar with the templates provided. Manning and Amare give an example of provoking action: “Besides the common overuse of decorative in PowerPoint… the PowerPoint program itself is constructed to automatically bullet text and then to easily animate those bullets. The audience is moved to follow bits of text as they buzz around the screen” (200). When a reader is guided through a document, step by step, the reader may miss information needed to comprehend the message of the article. Michael Alley and Kathryn A. Neeley discuss the drawbacks of PowerPoint by cautioning, “There is a strong tendency for the slides to become the message rather than a means to enrich the message” (418). Actions provoked by the indicative goals should not change the perception of the reader or compromise the ethics of the writer.

The third rhetorical goal according to Peirce is the informative goal. Informative goals are different than decorative and indicative goals. Informative goals can be proven true or false by rational reasoning or experiments. Tables, graphs, and charts are examples of informative representations (Manning and Amare 200). Manning and Amare point out the ethical concern with the three typology goals by stating, “Ethical concerns can arise when decorative or indicative elements begin to interfere with the informative purpose of a visual” (195). It is important for a writer to keep the audience and goals of the article in mind when selecting visual media. These goals would be worth discussing in the classroom setting to get students thinking about visual rhetoric and its effects that misunderstanding them can have.

Visual Semiotics

Persuasive tactics can be used to sway a reader’s interpretation of an image. Sam Dragga and Dan Voss remind technical communicators that “ethical visuals must be as humanistic as ethical words” (266). If a communicator and a reader lack knowledge on reading images there could be a problem with the meaning of the document as a whole. For a technical communicator to effectively present visual media in a document they should have somewhat of an understanding of visual semiotics. Claire Harrison cautions that, “An image is not the result of a singular, isolated, creative activity, but is itself a social process” (47). Images are signs or representations of what the writer is trying to communicate to the reader. It is important for a technical communicator to remember that signs mean different things to different people. An image can have different meanings in different cultures. These elements are taught to technical communicators, but it is important that communicators go a step further in understanding the effects an image may have.

Semiotics is defined by Harrison as a “study of signs. For a sign to exist there must be meaning or content (the signified) manifested through some form of expression or representation (the sign)” (46). There are many factors to consider when choosing a visual media. Allen suggests that before the increase of technology it was possible to alter reality in visual media. Selection, emphasis, and framing also play a role in how an image is perceived by the reader. Allen states, “In the past as well as in the present, visual presentation, or, more properly, representation, of the physical world have been adjusted and controlled in various ways that affect what viewers see” (88). Not only should an image be carefully selected for effect, it also should be selected to help the reader perceive the document as multimodal using visual rhetoric to reinforce the goal of the document.

Harrison outlines the challenges that writers face in choosing images for an article. Writers need to evaluate an image and analyze its attributes before selecting an image. A few attributes that may affect perception are point of view, ellipsis (presuppose meaning despite omitted words), tight coupling (cannot remove any text or image without destroying the meaning), and the type of images. These are key factors that need to be evaluated when analyzing an image for meaning. Harrison, Gurri and authors agree on this point. They all emphasize the need for writers to effectively analyze an image before choosing one and consider the reason the other images where not chosen. Figure 1 is a diagram from Dragga and Voss’s article that shows the effects of humanity by simply inserting a diagram in a multimodal document. This diagram represents a platform from an oil rig accident in the Gulf of Mexico. The diagram chosen excludes one very important factor, the human operators involved in the accident. This diagram dismisses the full effect of the accident. Choosing this type of diagram and excluding the human lives lost can be misleading to the reader. The writer has lead the reader in direction that disregards a major factor in the accident, human life.

Figure 2 is another image for Dragga and Voss’s article that shows how the impact of the image can changed by placing a focus and value on human life. This visual is also demonstrating an accident in the Gulf of Mexico where human life was lost. By choosing this image the writer not only gives importance to the accident itself, but they also allow the reader to see the full impact of the accident by showing the effect of human lives. Giving communicators the knowledge of visual semiotics could make a difference in the images they select and use as visual rhetoric in a document. It will help the perception of the reader and keep the ethics of the writer intact. Although visual semiotics is an older theory, it still rings true to what responsibilities technical communicators have when informing their audiences.