CHAPTER 5 : Evaluating Visual Rhetoric

Chapter Objectives

1. Define visual rhetoric.

2. Explain the visual rhetoric’s significance in business communications.
3. Analyze visual cues and images based on modes of persuasion.
4. Criticize the manner of visual rhetoric presentation.
5. Create their own visual arguments.
6. Evaluates visual rhetoric examples.

Introduction

In this Chapter, we study the growing avenue to communicate, particularly the

role of visual images to persuasion. By nature, people are cognizant that convincing
someone to act on something is a necessary skill to practice in order to satisfy one’s
needs. Whatever our status or role in life is---whether you are a businessman, a
teacher, a lawyer, a broadcaster, a clergyman, a student, a friend, or even simple by
being a child to your parents, the ability to persuade others has become our drive to
strive and fulfill our purpose. However, given the unimaginable and inevitable
advancement of technology, our means to induce others has grown as well. More than
mere words or texts, we choose to tell our stories and stance in image forms to adapt to
the demands of changing society.

Although reading something in visual form is not new, we could still bring
ourselves back to the time and place where people during the Old Stone Age left
evidence of rock paintings and cuneiforms where the earliest human acts are picture
writing and reading. Followed by the Sumerians in Southern Mesopotamia more than
5000 years ago, they developed a writing system whose wedge-shaped strokes
influenced the style of scripts for the next 3000 years. Also, during the Egyptian
civilization when Egyptians invented paper from papyrus plant where they wrote their
signs with red pen and ink made by a mixture of water, gum, and soot. These visual
cues where nearly relevant to how we perceive things in the real world in order to
convey meaning and register to memory. But how do this images act rhetorically toward
their spectators.

LESSON 1 - The What, Why and Where of Visual Rhetoric

New media “texts are typically in an online context, and because of their use of modes
the readers more typically find in aesthetic texts (i.e., film, audio, animation), their argumentative
models are not linear, alphabetic, or reminiscent of traditional print-bound models.”
- Cheryl Ball

Discussion

In our growing visual culture, having the millennials and gen Z down to Alpha, it
is incontestable that people of the modern day would always opt to seeing and
evaluating things through visual images, may they be moving or still. In any aspect of
the society, reading long texts and articles became problematic to the way we
understand them in one sitting or so. Even the PowerPoint presentations that are
crammed with verbose contents (words and visuals) are no longer ideal and acceptable
to the eyes and judgement of the viewers. Sadly, there is no or little appreciation on the
works of the writer or message of the speaker as a result.

Effective business communication must realize the need of being understood

particularly on how their visual presentations affect the audience’s ability to apprehend
and respond positively to the message they want to convey that also reflects their
professional credibility. Therefore, visual rhetoric is seen as a vital part of solving
problems in the business world.

Visual Rhetoric refers to the way the visual topographies of a message and the
overall design of a document communicate not only the message but also the business
communicators’ professional credibility. These features include not only photos,
drawings, charts, graphs, and tables, but also the document design such as font style,
size, color, placement of text in a page, paragraph length, and the use of headings
(Lentz & Rentz, 2018). Given the definition, it is not imperative for one to become a
graphic designer or IT professional in order to achieve the desired result. Whether you
plan to be a teacher, an accountant, marketer, vlogger, public speaker, event manager,
dancer/choreographer, director, actor, doctor, or a veterinarian, as long as your purpose
is to design a message and to present them visually for the best readability that can
persuade the readers/viewers and see your message as worth reading and worth
spending time on, you are visual rhetoric.

Visual literacy demotes the “ability to understand, interpret, and evaluate visual
messages” (Bristor and Drake, 1i994). Thus, virtual rhetoric makes a presentation
conducive to its recipients, helping them to assess same image that mean differently to
people from varied context and culture. So, to deliver the same and exact message the
author or communicator must cautiously consider and thoughtfully prioritize his
audience since people are easily persuaded by the visual signals we see every day.
Rhetoric, as defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary, means the art of speaking or
writing effectively as a means of communication or persuasion. In a nutshell, visual
rhetoric is how a person interprets and analyzes the things he has sees and how these
things make an impact to him.

Considering the need to convince the audience, the following modes of

persuasion (rhetorical appeals by Aristotle) are used:
 Ethos or the ethical appeal means to convince the audience of the
communicator’s credibility and character.
 Pathos or the emotional appeal is a way of convincing the audience of an
argument through stimulating an emotional response on however the
communicator wants him to feel based on the visual cues.
 Logos or logical appeal is the communicator’s way of convincing the
audience based on logic and facts.
 In business, visual rhetoric becomes rampantly significant to one’s success.
Conversely, words are said to be a powerful weapon of a person especially in making
an impact to customers or clients. This is unswervingly similar to images. More than
visual manipulation, images are as powerful as words as they are still part of some
materials used to persuade the recipients, but mostly because of the imagery that they
create in our minds.

For instance, when browsing your Facebook feed, you might come across ads
like the following:

(Visual illustrations of the advertisement of Maybelline Philippines Beauty MNL)

Ask yourself question such as, “what is this advertisement for?” or “What is the
purpose of this ad?”

The first ad from Maybelline Philippines enthused the make-up enthusiast or

even an ordinary person who is into beauty products to board or simply buy their lipstick
product since they are on sale via online shop which can be accessed through
lazada.com.ph. The word “SALE” and figure 50% are the features that customers may
always give attention to. The phrase “FEW HOURS LEFT”will create alarm as
emphasizes that they will have countdown for the “2 HOURS ONLY” promo. With the
additional photo of Gigi Hadid wearing nude lipstick shade and display of their new
shades of lipsticks, the audience will rely on the color hues they see. Thus, audience of
this ads may neglect to realize or give careful mindfulness of the time limit of sale.

Since visual rhetoric is not limited to pictures neither to a text alone, rather a
combination of visual and verbal expression of arguments with an effort to stimulate a
desired response from the audience, other modes to locate them include political
cartoons on newspapers, captioned photographs in print or media (e.g., magazines),
business communications, fad short and independent films, television advertisements,
political and fundraising campaign films and ads, statistical graphs and charts of
instructions and maps, book covers, YouTube video intros, and even social media
memes. Majority of this platform are expressed through visual typographies.
LESSON 2 : The How of Visual Rhetoric

“The field of Rhetoric/Composition has yet to acknowledge, truly acknowledge, that changes and
developments in writing tools have changed writing, literacy, and communication practices in fundamental
ways---that, given how writing happens in the 21st century, all composition research needs to be
computers and writing research.”
- Jim Porter

Discussion

It is important for information whether on print or on the computer screen to

convey the overall meaning and message and relay complete understanding to
audience. This can be achieved through various conventions of design of visual
arguments such as font size, font weight, indention, capitalization, punctuation,
italicization, use of boldface, choice of color, and other fillers.

Basic Elements of visual Rhetoric in Hypertext

As cited in Dynamic Diagrams, Inc. (2014), originally published in Designing User

Interfaces for Hypermedia (1995), there are three fundamental elements of visual
rhetoric in hypertext. Hypertext is defined as a database format in which information
related to that on a display can be accessed directly from the display which was first
known used in 1965 (Merriam Webster Dictionary). When browsing the World Wide
Web, this is usually in the format of underlined words in color blue font that can be
clicked, then, the user will be redirected to another website where the highlighted words
are further discussed.

Hypertexts are undeniably significant in business since they can link one
business to another, to customers, and to a certain degree of user empowerment. In a
digital world, there is always a need of immediate publishing and presentation of content
information that encourages interaction between the communicator of the organization
and audience. And who on earth can say that there is a limit to human knowledge?
 The three important elements and methods in any hypertext system are as
follows:
1. Link presence which must have link extent
 The hypertext uses a graph to denote the presence of a link in all types of
media such as text, graphics of images, GIF or animation, and even video in
highlighted format.
 This link presence is not limited to being underlined and colored blue, the
style can also be in a form of bracket, box, partial box of linked words and
phrases. In addition, use of bold, background color, strikethrough, and
background stripes with hard and rounded corners are also possible.

2. Link destination which must have multiple destinations.

 It denotes that a hypertext provides clue to the reader about a link’s
destination in a form of a file/document name, type, and anchor explainer. For
instance, the user inserts a hyperlink that does not create a hypertext on a
PowerPoint presentation/slide, moving the cursor anywhere on that slide
would highlight the navigational possibilities from the link where a hypertext is
located. This would give the reader the file name and type that has possible
destination.
 However, if the link has multiple destinations, double clicking on the hypertext
would show a dialog box listing the file names where the file is possibly
located. Usually, a uniform of general location will pop up which is unrelated
to the hyperlink so the user needs to select a file destination to continue the
navigation.

3. Link mapping which must display link and knot relationship

 This happens when a hypertext reader gets lost of his track once he clicks
the link and be redirected to an unknown website. This normally occurs when
one wants to download the file and unconsciously finds himself in different
websites (usually ads), only to find out, in most cases, that he cannot
download such file because of payment restriction.
  However, this works when the reader clicks the hypertext, for example, “See
also” or lateral links that are clustered at the bottom of the page and be able
to scroll fast and read what’s on the next page. Wikipedia is one of good
example of this. If you notice, there is a link browser for online documentation
system that they use that looks like a table of contents for the entire page
information. The navigation experience of the reader will be at ease because
he does not need to scroll up and down only to see if the content he is
looking is located there or not.

In creating a hypertext link, bear in mind that a link does not necessary have to
be a text. It can be an image or any other HTML element. HTML links are hyperlinks
where the user can click on them and redirected to another file. This is why when
hovering the cursor over hyperlinks, the cursor style changes into an arrow or a hand.

3 Easy Steps to Create a Hyperlink to a Location on the Web (for Microsoft Office
Word)
(Retrieved from: https://support.office.com)
1. Select the text or picture that you want to display as a hyperlink.
2. On the insert tab, click Hyperlink. You may also right click the text or picture and
click Hyperlink on the shortcut menu.
3. In the insert Hyperlink box, type or paste your link in the Address box. Or simply
select the file.

7 East Steps to Add Hyperlink with HTML/Hypertext Markup Language

(Adapted from: https://www.google.com.ph/amp/s/m.wikihaw.com.Add-a-Hyperlink-with-
HTML%3{amp=1)
1. Open a new document in a simple text editor. You may use Notepad on a
Windows PC or Text Edit on Macintosh.
2. Create you HTML document with the proper HTML tags up to the point
where the link needs to be added bearing in mind that links must be seen
to be able to ne used affectively. You must add them to the file
 somewhere below the <body> and before the <body> tags. Form each
item on its own separate line, as shown below, which is required for all
web pages.
 <html>
 <head>
 </head>
 <body>
 </body>
 </html>
3. Create the link on where the tag needs to be easily noticed by the reader.
Begin your tag by typing back the beginning and ending tags. Type <a
href=” “>, followed by </a> to form the link/anchor tag, thus, the “a” in the
HTML tag’s name.

4. Find the place in between the quotation marks and place your complete
URL there. Make sure to use the actual URL in the address bar.

5. Compose your own title for the link on what readers should click.. Type
this text directly after the triangular end bracket of your anchor beginning
Tag and before the beginning part of your triangular end bracket’s anchor
tag. You may also insert your own images in this location by using <img>
tag to the HTML page, leaving the <a href=” “> and < /a> tags in place to
form the link to other page.

6. Save your file with a html extension and open it in a web browser to view
your output.

7. Preview your website. Make sure to double check your code to avoid
showing the actual incorrect codes to your reader because the process
falls. Your code should be like <a href=http://www.example.com>Test
Further Reading:

Lanigan, M. L., (2010). Creating a Web Page Using HTML, XHTML, and CSS.
The Basic. Module 6. Third House, Inc.

How to Generate Visual Material

Text elements are relatively important as displayed on one particular image.

Texts are highly visual and powerful to catch someone’s attention that they naturally
become invisible at times. Thus, communicators need to give emphasis on what “type”
does to their design of information. Even without considering the actual meaning of the
words displayed, meaning and visual should always work together.

Font conventions must be considered because they convey and create distinct
meaning to one’s mind when viewed and paid attention to.

Nick Kolenda (2016) published a book titled “The Psychology of Fonts” where he
explained thoroughly that people subconsciously evaluate fonts as they compare
collective meaning to the context and based on the degree of fluency. He enumerated
traits with their corresponding meaning and levels based on how one font would strike
the audience.

Below is a table he used and adopted from Handerson, Gigse & Cate (2004) on
how to choose the right font according to Science. The user may simply look for a group
of traits that describe his target context, then choose a font with similar visual
characteristics.
Fonts also vary inn perceptual traits.

For SEFIR vs SANS-SERIF

 Serif fonts are more reliable via print while Sans-Serif fonts are more reliable via
screen.
 Serif fonts denote elegance and rationale while Sans-Serif fonts imply informality
and innovation.

For Light vs Bold

 Light fonts signify beauty and femininity while bold fonts convey power and
masculinity.
 However medium weight fonts are most readable.

For Rounded vs Angular

 Rounded font indicate comfort, softness, and femininity while angular fonts show
formality, durability, and masculinity.

For Simple vs Complex

 Simple fonts represent directness while complex fonts embody uniqueness.

For Slanted vs Straight

 Slanted fonts show movement while straight fonts show stability.

For lowercase vs UPPERCASE

 Lowercase symbolizes compassion and innovation while uppercase represents
power and strength.
 While mixed case letters are most readable.

For Separated vs Connected

 Separated letters indicate fragmentation and individuality while connected signify
unity and collectivism.
For Condensed vs Extended
 Condensed fonts imply tightness and precious while exyended fonts denote
space and relaxation.

For Short vs Tall

 Short fonts signify heaviness and stability while tall fonts show lightness.

Further Reading
Kolenda, N. (20156). The Psychology of Fonts. Kolenda Entertainment LLC.
Retrieved from https://www.nickkolenda.com/fonts-phsychology/
https://nickkolenda.com/color-phsychology/
http://nickkolenda.com/copywritting-tips
https://www.nickkoleenda.com/naming-process/

Queries to consider when Choosing Fonts

1. What does my audience expect from my use of fonts? Are they people in
academe, netizens, athletes, beauty gurus, film enthusiast, or religious people?
2. What do embody in my font choices?
 Am I writing as an event manager?
 Am I applying for a job?
 Am I an owner of a Facebook page that creates a lot of memes of one
particular aspect of the user’s life?
 Am I an editor-in-chief of our school newspaper?
 Am I a producer of short films?
 Am I a YouTube vlogger?
 Am I a cartoonist?
 Am I an online seller?
3. What kind of text am I typing in various fonts? Is it for headlines or fine print?
Body text or bulleted list?
4. How far is my text being viewed by the audience? Is it on billboard, poster, flyer,
sticker, or greeting card?
 5. What are the available fonts that can register on majority of my audience’s
computers if I will post on my website in case they are using an old version of
OS?

How Colors Affect Customer’s Mood and Branding

Same as text, colors are essential as you “type” choice, not to mention that some
people are color blind. Still, color attracts the audience, in general, as it paints all sort of
emotions and triggers the creativity in people to think and appreciate something. Colors
have many meanings depending to the context and field. But let us focus on the
technical side where Ciotti (2018) wrote this article titled “The Psychology of Color in
Marketing and Branding” on Help Scout website.

In Chapter 1, we talked about the three modes of persuasions. Since persuasion

is one of the most though-provoking and debatable aspect of marketing and all
businesses need this power of persuade people, certain color is seen as factor that is
associated with certain feelings or mood based on studies as believed since 1930 in the
Western world. There are metaphors of colors that affect people’s mood. First things
first, business communicator must understand how their choice of colors for their brand
may affect the customer’s mood toward their products or services.

Not all people have bipolar disorder yet many people change mood from time to
time. This one aspect may be answered by one of many factors—colors around us. It is
true that colors have different meaning depending on cultures. There are certain colors
that generally align with particular traits such as brown with ruggedness but can be used
to create a warmth feeling in another context, purple with sophistication, red with
excitement, and green with calmness and sometimes used to brand environment issues
or to brand financial cases.

Taking about color preferences based on gender, there is a sovereignty of blue

across both men and women although blue and pink became associated with men and
women. Further studies found that when it comes to shade, tint and hoes, men, in
general, prefer bold and strong color like black, while women like soft colors such as
colors with white added on them, or what we now called “pastel” and “nude” color.
Therefore, idea of “perceived appropriateness” should not be taken constant as
audience’s taste changes over time same as it does on color theory surveys.

In addition, different colors stimulate different behavior. When choosing the right
color for your brand, you may consider the following using color psychology:

 Blue indicate trust and appeals of discipline, formal, calmness, trustworthiness,

clarity, security, and articulation. (e.g. Baskin Robbins, United Airlines, British
Airways, Nokia, Volkswagen, The Range, Pfizer, MMDA, Globe, Robinsons,
Petron, Metrobank, SM, Goldilocks, Unilever, & Social Security System)
 Green denotes prosperity, progress, peace, environment, balance, and
freshness (e. g. Subway, Potato Corner, Cebu Pacific, Landbank, and Smart).
 Red conveys energy, excitement, vibrancy, passion, enthusiasm, rebel,
masculinity, and action. (e.g. McDonalds, Vans, Audii, Jollibee, National Book
Store, Lucky Me, Go Nuts, Donuts, Sun Cellular, MMDA, BPI, Robinsons,
Petron, Selecta, Max’s, Tokyo Tokyo & PLDT)
 Yellow is a cheerful color. It is warm, active, and innovate. (e. g. Subway,
McDonald’s, Jollibee, Lucky Me, Zago, Sun Cellular, MMDA and Duty Free)
 Black signifies power, class, elegance, uncompromising behavior, strength,
security, and evil. (e.g. HUGO BOSS, Nike, Adidas, Chanel, Vans, Zagu, &
Tokyo Tokyo)
 Orangeexudes, extraversion, confidence, youthfulness, and fun. (e.g. Hermes,
The Home Depot, Potato Corner, & Meralco)
 Silver or white stands for quality and workmanship. (e.g. Toyota & Datu Puti)

Use color psychology to get your perfect color but if you cannot get the color that
best suits your personality or spirit you want to pass to your audience, you may mix and
match.
 Below is a Color Emotion Guide from The Logo Company that may help you
choose appropriate colors to your brand.

(PHOTO OF COLOR EMOTION GUIDE)

-Photo from the Logo Company-

Psychologist and Stanford professor Jennifer Azker (1997) conducted studies on

color branding with her research titled “Dimensions of Brand Personality” that highlights
five core dimensions that portray a role in a brand’s personality. The figure below shows
these dimensions of brand personality.

Sincerity Excitement Competence Sophistication Ruggedness

Down-to-earth Daring Reliable Upper-class Outdoorsy

Hard-working Glamorous
Family-oriented Trendy Masculine
Secure Good looking
Small-town Exciting Western
Honest Spirited Intelligent
Technical Charming Tough
Sincere Cool Young Feminine
Corporate Rugged
Real
Imaginative Smooth
Wholesome Unique
Successful
Original Leader
Up-to-date Confident
Cheerful Independent
Sentimental Contemporary
Friendly

The truth about color branding is based on personal experiences of people that
maybe associated to specific feelings and emotions and yet, it depends. Although, the
context where one is working at is an important consideration. It has been proven by
several studies that the way consumers see colors of products affects their judgment on
them. In a study titled “Impact of Color of Marketing,” researchers found that up to 90%
of immediate verdicts made on the product that be dependent on color alone,
considering the product itself. Another study showed that the relevance of color and
brand rents on the perceived appropriateness of the color being used for the particular
brand. In a nutshell, it is the feeling, mood, and image of the brand or product that one
creates that matters.
Visual Designer Apps and Tools

In our tech savvy generation, it is not only the brand alone that is being sold
having certain color that represents it, but also the color manipulation applied on a
specific image becomes a trendy product being sold all over the social media platform.
Specifically, the millennial who spend their time mostly on social media, particularly,
Instagram, found this hobby in mixing and playing with colors a meaningful and
productive job. I am talking about “PRESETS”. Many Instagram users sell Lightroom CC
(the app they use to edit high definition and eye satisfying photos) presets in their
websites to people who would like to make their photos presentable and attractive to
their followers on a certain media platform be afford to purchase the premium feature of
the application.

A lightroom preset is a package of filter that takes the editing, applying modified
effects for you without you having to adjust levels of photo editing tools and features
only to achieve the desired fulfilling photo that you may want to publish at your
Instagram account. Mostly, bloggers/vloggers and photographers are the main sellers of
this product. This also proves that tech savvy people tend to judge a person’s credibility
especially if he is famous online, based on the way his IG feed is presented.

Below is an example of Lightroom preset photo editing process from

livibautista.com. (Please see color rendition at the inside front cover)

There are many other apps that can be used to create visual rhetoric image that
are ideal for social media marketing even if you are not an expert in choosing and
manipulating colors and fonts. They will help you do the job well. Some of them are:

 Adobe Photoshop  Blend Editor Superimpose FX

 AnyFont  Enlight Photofox
 Aviary  Fly
 Bazaars Photo Editor & Collage  Ghost Lens AR Fun Video Editor
  Kapwing  Piclay Photo Blend Editor Test
 Meme Creator: Make Dank  PicsArt
Memes  Snapseed
 Meme Generator  Split Pic Collage Photo Maker
 Meme Maker  Studio
 Mix on Pix  Tiff
 My Fontbook  Typecast
 Over  Typekit
 Phonto  Typorama
 Photo Lab Filters for Pictures  Unfold-Create Stories
 Photofly  VSCO Cam
 Pie Collage  WordSwag
 Pie Lab

Designer Tools
 Canva
 Frontify Style Guide
 Pablo by Muffler
 Peck
 Screen Flor
 SmartMockops
 Visual Website Optimizer
 WordFlow

Design as Rhetorical Organization

Designing visuals rhetorically is likened to the way a normal person reads being
particular to setting his eyes on important cues weather horizontal, vertical, diagonal, or
circular manner. This is also the same when we organize concepts in writing a
paragraph. The following points can help you designs with rhetorical organization.
1. Design based on significance. Meaningful contents use large font size,
customized fonts, and carefully chosen color.

2. Design based on purpose. Images that will be used should directly get the
meaning and purpose across the reader. Do not include unnecessary
graphics, text, or even punctuations.

3. Design to build up highlights and zoom in.More than delivering the message or
contextual meaning to the audience, it is no doubt that you design to be notice,
may it be positive or negative, you publish your design became you want people
to see and criticize it.

4. Design based on uniqueness. One design cannot easily be noticed or

appreciated if it is not new. Always bear creativity in mind. Design based on who
you are and who you want to be known for.
LESSON 3 : Visual Rhetoric Analytic Methodologies

“Crate your own visual style…let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others”.
- Orson Welles

Discussion

After learning the nuts and bolts of generating visual material, it is now time to
put yourselves into the shoes of audience. Whenever you come across a visual
argument, you cannot help but give comments and criticisms verbally or mentally. But
the question might be, “How should we analyze visual rhetoric?” “Is there really a proper
way of doing it?” and “Should I feel obliged to give the right judgment to a particular
visual image and typography.
The following initials steps may be considered when conducting visual rhetoric
analysis:
1. Take note of every single thing you see in the ad. Give careful attention
to colors, objects, and all meaningful details.
2. Identify the significance of the objects and graphics used. Ponder on why you
the visual designer chose to use that certain illustration. How does it appeal to
your emotions (pathos)? Logos? Ethos?
3. Determine the overall message. What is the ad’s purpose?
4. Pinpoint the target audience. Are you the possible target audience of the
visual? The rules may change depending on whom the author wants to speak
to because diverse audiences may have various responses.

Rose (2007) enumerated three sites and modalities at which meanings of visual
images are made and interpreted. The three sites are production, image, and audiences
while the three modalities are technological, compositional, and social that are also
found in all sites.
 Production/Technological – the medium of material/tool used to produce and
design a specific image.
  Image/Compositional – The image itself including the object, text, color, style,
organization of features on page, and graphics used that convey a particular
meaning/message.
 Audiences/Social – people who view the visual image since it can reach and
can be seen by different kinds of individuals who are expected to the
affected/persuaded by the visual rhetoric.

How to Write Your Visual Analysis Paper

Generally, people see visual analysis as “go with the flow” method that whenever
you see something, you simple judge if based on what you see first and what you can
say about this prominent thing on the image. However, you may have an outline when
writing an academic paper on visual rhetoric. Your visual analysis paper must include
the following pats:

Introduction – State the fundamental details about the visual image. Note that your
purpose is also to make other audience have a look at it. You may consider one of the
following:

 Tell interesting facts about the artwork or artist (if you know him).
 Describe the visual clearly but only to preempt the reader of your paper to also
see it using imagery.
 Explicate the purpose of the image itself and/or artist.
 Discuss the position or argument of the image.

Thesis Statement –Have your thesis statement at the end of your introduction or at the
beginning of your body. Do this by analyzing the meaning of the visual image. You may:
 Consider the time of the designer when he created it or to whose time he
created it for.
  Describe what sort of claim you are writing (Is the image stating a fact, posing a
claim, inculcating values, or proposing a policy?); and/or
 Write your position/idea if you are in favor or not of the claim.

Body – Discuss your ideas and thesis statement with supporting evidence based on the
visual image. Make sure to understand the elements of an image,
 State your claim (see description of thesis statement}
 Describe the visual composition based on the arrangement of features. You may
examine the:
 Directional terms such as layout, balance (use the rule of thirds either
vertically of horizontally).
 Directional terms like juxtaposition when two objects are out together to
show association and relevance, contrast when putting two different
objects together, focus on what you see first when you first look at it
which is usually at the center of the visual, frame when analyzing the
edges of it including the cropped parts and margin, and victor or some
lines on the visual that your eyes follow unconsciously to move in a
different direction, and
 Color, lightning, and texture techniques that affect the mood of the
message such as bright gloomy, pastel or nude, and dark colors, weather
the light is bold, plains, shadowy, or the texture of rough, smooth, organic,
geometric, or linear.

 Have confidence with your own eyes and trust your description even before you
research on the history of the visual.
 Determine the genre of the visual image (e.g. advertisement, book cover, graphic
art, film, painting, signage, campaign poster, etc.)
 Explain the relevance and role of the text to the visual.
 Highlight the appeal to logic, emotions, or character of the designer.
 Explain whether there is a cultural aspect involved.
 Narrate briefly the story that the visual convey.
Conclusion – End your analysis by concluding or giving a fascinating or motivating fact
rather than giving a summary or repetition of your claim.

Visual rhetoric is never plain. It is always designed through personal

experiences, innovation and meaningful knowledge or sometimes of a person.
Therefore, critical analysis to visual rhetoric is necessary. There are many
methodologies in conducting visual analysis debating on what aspect to focus on to
come up with the most accurate meaning the designer wants to deliver to his audience.
Thus, what matters most is when one makes meaning of something that he once
thought of as meaningless.

Chapter Highlights

 Visual Rhetoric is the way the visual topographies of a message and the overall
design of document communicate not only the message but also the business
communicators’ professional credibility. It is also how a person interprets and
analyzes the things he sees and how these things make an impact on him.
 There are three modes of persuasion to convince the audience namely: ethos,
pathos, and logos
 Visual rhetoric becomes rampantly significant to the success of one’s business
because images are as powerful as words that are used to persuade the
recipients and to create visual imagery on them.
 Visual rhetoric includes political cartoons on newspapers, captioned photographs
in print or media, business communications, fad short and independent films,
television advertisements, political and fundraising campaign films and ads,
statistical graphs and charts of instructions and maps, book covers, YouTube
video intros, and social media memes.
 Visual rhetoric analysis may simply be done through looking at the purpose of the
visual designer, audience, visual/image composition, and contextual period the
visual was produced and when it is viewed.
  The three sites and modalities used in analyzing visuals are
production/technological, image/compositional, and audiences/social.
 There are four essential parts of a visual rhetoric analysis namely; introduction,
thesis statement, body, and conclusion.
 Visual rhetoric is always designed through personal experiences, innovation, and
meaningful knowledge or sentiments of a person.
 Hypertext are undeniably significant in business since it can link one business to
another to customers, and a certain degree of user empowerment.
 The three basic elements of visual rhetoric hypertext are link presence, link
destination, and link mapping.
 Color is seen as a factor associated with certain feelings or consumer' mood.
Thus business communicators must understand how their choice pf colors for
their brand may affect the consumer’s mood towards their product or services.
 Color branding is based on personal experiences of people that may be
associated with specific feelings and emotions. It reads on the perceived
appropriateness of the color being used for the particular brand.
 Designing with rhetorical organization can be achieved through significance,
purpose, emphasis, and uniqueness.
 What matters most in visual rhetoric analysis is when one makes meaning of
something that he once thought of as meaningless.

Reference/s:
Rosales, MJ.D, Galano, E.A & Riviera, JA.A. (2019). Technical writing: a resource guide
to writing across disciplines. Lorimar Publishing, INC. 776 Aurora Blvd., cor.
Boston Street, Cubao, Quezon City, Metro Manila

Other related references/sources