IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 50, NO.

1, MARCH 2007 57

The Language of Visuals:

Text + Graphics = Visual Rhetoric
Tutorial
—Feature by
NICOLE AMARE, ASSOCIATE MEMBER, IEEE and ALAN MANNING

Abstract—Technical communication textbooks tend to address visual rhetoric as two separate units, usually a
chapter on document design and then a chapter on graphics. We advocate teaching a unified system of visual rhetoric
that encompasses both text and graphics within a common visual-language system. Using C. S. Peirce’s three-part
theory of rhetoric and his ten categories of sign, we offer an integrated semiotic system, interpreting in one model
the effectiveness of graphics, document design, and formatting, all considered as subtypes in this proposed visual
rhetoric, organized around three primary communication goals: to decorate, to indicate, and to inform. Thus, any
evaluation of visuals, either textual or graphic, must be made with reference to rhetorical contexts in which audience
needs and graphic/textual media choices should align with authorial goals.

Index Terms—Document design, graphics, Peirce, semiotics, visual rhetoric.

Technical communication textbooks tend to

address visual rhetoric as two separate units,
view their written text as primary and their graphics
as merely decorative add-ons. This erroneous view
can lead to poorly hastily constructed graphics
treating document design and informative graphics but also to poorly constructed text as well. Handa
separately. Document-design discussion tends to cautions that
focus largely on formatting and readability issues:
invoking the use of margins, white space, font we must resist overlooking the rhetorical
styles, color, headings, paragraphing, columns, function of graphics, small or large, which we
etc. Informative-graphics discussion tends to focus might often find so easy to ignore or to dismiss
largely on effectiveness, defined in terms of (1) subconsciously as decoration. When analyzing
accuracy, (2) inoffensiveness, and (3) clarity or hybrid texts and constructing them with
readability. A graphic is judged ineffective if it our students, we need to constantly remind
skews data or inaccurately portrays information. A ourselves that images, as much as text, can be
graphic is judged ineffective if it offends a particular analyzed rhetorically, can be connotative, for
group of readers. A graphic is judged ineffective if it instance, in addition to being denotative. [1,
is unclear or unreadable. p. 305]

It is quite apparent, though, that text and graphics Our goal in this tutorial is to present a system
alike must accurately portray information. Neither of visual rhetoric in which graphics and text are
must lie to readers. Likewise, both text and graphics treated together. Our presentation of this system
must be constructed so as to avoid giving offense. will be organized around four key points:
What may require further explication, however, is
the idea that document readability and graphics Point 1: Text and graphics alike can be classified as
readability are both governed by the same rules. visually configured information.
This is the subject of our tutorial. Our purpose
Point 2: Text and graphics alike necessarily have a
here is to enumerate theoretical principles that
decorative (aesthetic) component, but this is never
serve to clarify and strengthen the ties between text
sufficient for genuine information transfer.
design and informative-graphics design in such
a way that they may be taught as a single unit. Point 3: Text and graphics alike must use indicative
This is valuable because there is a tendency among (action-provoking) forms with restraint, so as not to
student writers (and even some professionals) to burden or overwork readers.

Manuscript received April 20, 2006; revised July 11, 2006. Point 4: Text and graphics alike, in order to be
N. Amare is with the University of South Alabama, informative, must be diagrams rather than images.
Mobile, AL 36688 USA (email: [email protected]).
A. Manning is with Brigham Young University, Conclusion: Textual and graphic media choices,
Provo, UT 84602 USA (email: [email protected]).
if effective, must align with audience needs and
IEEE 10.1109/TPC.2006.890851 authorial goals in terms of primary types.

0361-1434/$25.00 © 2007 IEEE

58 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 50, NO. 1, MARCH 2007

POINT 1: VERBAL TEXT IS A KIND OF VISUAL or dependent on, textual information. We must
recognize, however, that there are aspects of visual
We will begin the tutorial by calling attention to
rhetoric that begin to merge with textual rhetoric:
base text. This is a block of text with minimal
layout issues, font-choice issues, and white-space
visual formatting only: punctuation between major
issues (i.e., visual design/graphics issues). There
phrases and white space between words.
are other aspects of visual rhetoric that, at the
For full effect, we suggest that an instructor might superficial level, seem to pull away from textual
also present students with text lacking even spaces issues, but even these, we would suggest, are not
between words or punctuation. distinct in principle.

In any case, it should be explicitly pointed out Visuals as a group will be considered part of
that the white space between words, even the a single semiotic system that includes textual
periods and commas, are correctly understood as language as one type among several related types,
visual-rhetoric features: including images, diagrams, pure decorative forms,
indicators, and so on. The overall look and effective
Punctuation is to typography what perspective purpose of each type is distinct. Some types of
is to painting. It introduces the illusion of visual visuals are highly effective for accomplishing one
and audible dimension, giving words vitality. kind of goal that other types will not serve. Even so,
Whether prominent or subtle, punctuation there is a common system that unifies all the visual
marks are the heartbeat of typography, moving types, of which text is but one subtype. The source
words along in proper timing and with proper of our model is the work of the semiotician C. S.
emphasis. [2, p. 117] Peirce who identified 10 major classes of sign type
as logical permutations within a single system [5].
Without these very visual cues, the text effectively
becomes unreadable. Therefore, readable text Why Peirce? Peirce, more than any major
must employ some aspect of visual rhetoric, where communication theorist since his time
RHETORIC is here defined as formal strategies that (1839–1914), argued for the very point which was
make communication effective. Written text is thus demonstrated in our discussion of Fig. 1. Text is
best understood as just another kind of informative a kind of visual and visuals are a kind of text.
graphic, not fundamentally different from tables, For Peirce, visuals and text are only superficially
graphs, diagrams, charts, or even photographic different manifestations of the same SEMIOTIC
images. To be readable, text has to be visually PROCESS, meaning the exchange of feelings, actions,
configured, just as other kinds of graphics are. or information between minds by means of any
kind of sign. A SIGN is any visual or textual or tactile
Despite this textual dependence on visual
or auditory form that conveys meaning.
configuration, scholars traditionally have described
visuals as dependent upon and subordinate to Logic, in its general sense, is, as I believe I
written text (e.g., Barthes’ “Rhetoric of the Image” have shown, only another name for semiotic
[3]). More recent work in visual rhetoric has ({sémeiötiké}), the quasi-necessary, or formal,
attempted to define a language of visuals that is doctrine of signs . I mean that we observe
similar to written language systems (e.g., having the characters of such signs as we know, and
grammar) yet separate from (no longer symbiotically from such an observation, by a process which
linked to) surrounding text (c.f., Kress and van I will not object to naming Abstraction, we are
Leeuwen’s Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual led to statements as to what must be the
Design [4]). While this scholarly push has created characters of all signs used by a “scientific”
a burgeoning field for visual rhetoric, technical intelligence, that is to say, by an intelligence
communication textbooks still often discuss capable of learning by experience. [5, para.
document design separately from graphics, when 227, emphasis added]
both are visual-rhetoric topics.
In Peirce’s system, the underlying meaning of
The study of visual rhetoric is now widely thought
any word, sentence, or any longer text must be
to differ from the study of text design inasmuch as
understood as a diagram or other icon, either
rhetorical visuals are widely thought to have their
visually or in some other sensory mode, either
own systemic relationships and patterns of meaning
consciously or unconsciously.
that constitute a separate code, or a separate
language, in a manner of speaking—a language The only way of directly communicating an
that is not inferior to, or a mere supplement to, idea is by means of an icon; and every indirect
AMARE AND MANNING: THE LANGUAGE OF VISUALS: TEXT + GRAPHICS = VISUAL RHETORIC 59

method of communicating an idea must depend (1) (Peirce’s Firstness) to decorate—to create a
for its establishment upon the use of an icon. quality of feeling in the audience—borders,
Hence, every assertion [i.e., verbal text] must font shapes, color, etc., creating an overall
contain an icon or set of icons, or else must feel for a document. We will call all such
contain signs whose meaning is only explicable feeling-generating forms DECORATIVES.
by icons. The idea which the set of icons (or the (2) (Peirce’s Secondness) to indicate—to provoke
equivalent of a set of icons) contained in an an audience to action, locating, dividing,
assertion signifies may be termed the predicate classifying, etc.—web links that can be
of the assertion. [5, para. 278] clicked, action-activating buttons, page tabs
that can be turned, etc. We will call all such
In this tutorial, our main purpose is to explain action-provoking forms INDICATIVES.
Peirce’s system and demonstrate its specific (3) (Peirce’s Thirdness) to inform—to promote
relevance to contemporary communication in in an audience further understanding of
which visuals and text are so closely interwoven. some idea—stories, sales pitches, reports,
The meaning of any verbal information, if it explanations, etc. We will call all such
is understood, has to be transformed through idea-promotion forms INFORMATIVES.
the mediation of diagrammatic forms into both
perception (i.e., what we would see, hear, or feel
if the information is true) and action (i.e., how we
POINT 2: DECORATIVES ARE NECESSARY BUT
would act if the information is true). This insight NOT SUFFICIENT
is uniquely Peirce’s, and it is key to our analysis We now take the base text (Fig. 1) and apply those
of visually configured text. The Peircean system kinds of visual configuration which are primarily
is defined by just these three basic categories, decorative in nature. This decorative presentation
firstness=feeling, secondness=action, and of the text (Fig. 2) is distinctly less intimidating
thirdness=information, which for our purposes than the raw base text. This is an important
can be presented as three distinct rhetorical goals: consideration: if not put at ease, readers may not

Fig. 1. Base text is unreadable, or only readable with considerable effort.

60 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 50, NO. 1, MARCH 2007

even begin to read. A feeling of ease might emerge likewise confusing and tiring when several equally
from emotional tones created by color, ornamental prominent objects move in several directions at
borders, and font forms, but the necessary feeling of once, or blink at different rates. A parallel effect
ease may equally well arise from visually balanced, is created by over-bulleting a text, breaking each
appropriately divided text and uncomplicated information component into too many visually
sentence structure, especially in cases where dense distinct parts.
information is involved.
Like the decoratives exemplified in Fig. 2, indicative
The problem with strongly decorative elements strategies have their place. It is typically necessary
arises when their effects are not in line with to focus reader attention on a given point, or
intentions evident in the text. The decorative even to get readers actively moving in response to
effects in Fig. 2 might work well enough for a text, something which must happen with written
party invitation, where the informative message is instructions.
minimal (a time, a place, and the hosts’ names) and
the emotional message of celebration is the primary As with decoratives, the problem with strongly
one. indicative elements arises when their effects are
not in line with the intentions evident in the text.
Fig. 2 is more inviting than Fig. 1, but it is The indicative effects in Fig. 3 might be necessary if
virtually as difficult to actually extract complex a technician needs to, for example, check off each
information from the decorative version as from element on a detailed parts list, but once again
the raw version. This version’s paragraph breaks this legitimate use does not square with the actual
are made for aesthetic reasons of balance, rather content of the model passage.
than to mark key divisions in the information.
Information divisions do correspond in Fig. 2 to In short, if authorial intention and audience needs
changes in font, but this strategy creates a feeling are primarily informational, then decorative and
of emotional division, rather than a feeling of a indicative elements alike should take a distinctly
larger informational unity across divisions. subordinate role.

If authorial intention and audience need are

primarily informational, then decorative elements POINT 4: INFORMATIVES ARE DIAGRAMS, NOT
should take a distinctly subordinate role. IMAGES OF INFORMATION
We now take the base text (Fig. 1) and apply those
kinds of visual configuration which are primarily
POINT 3: INDICATIVES SHOULD BE USED informative in nature (Fig. 4). This informative
SPARINGLY presentation of the text will require some level of
We now take the base text (Fig. 1) and apply those effort on the part of readers, but this interpretive
kinds of visual configuration which are primarily effort is far more manageable here than it was for
indicative in nature (Fig. 3). This indicative the versions in Figs. 1–3.
presentation of the text is nearly as intimidating as
the raw base text, but for a different reason. Where The key to understanding the correct design
the raw Fig. 1 presented an impenetrable block, the of informative text is an understanding of the
indicative text presents a thorny gauntlet of bullet difference between images and diagrams. Again,
points. this is because graphics and texts are simply
subtypes, part of the same larger system. Texts
The thorny quality of Fig. 3 emerges from this with imagistic properties can only serve decorative
sheer number of bullet points. Each bullet forces or indicative purposes, as graphic images do.
a positive action: readers’ eyes physically move Images:
from point to point, and in the readers’ minds, • lack of clear contrasts;
each bulleted piece of information must be actively • no filter for irrelevant detail;
divided from the rest. • unreliable generalization.
Diagrams:
Bulleted lists are simply the textual counterpart • clear contrasts;
of graphic strategies such as pointing arrows, or • relevant details only;
blinking signs, or moving objects in animated clips. • generalization reliable and unified.
A blinking or moving object forces the eye to follow
it, and mentally the object is separated from the It is worth noting that we have deployed bullet
background of fixed objects. Animation becomes points here, in the image/diagram contrast, but in
AMARE AND MANNING: THE LANGUAGE OF VISUALS: TEXT + GRAPHICS = VISUAL RHETORIC 61

Fig. 2. Overly decorative text is less intimidating, but it remains difficult to extract complex information from it.
62 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 50, NO. 1, MARCH 2007

Fig. 3. Overly indicative text can be nearly as intimidating as raw text, and it remains difficult to extract complex
information from it.
AMARE AND MANNING: THE LANGUAGE OF VISUALS: TEXT + GRAPHICS = VISUAL RHETORIC 63

Fig. 4. Appropriately informative text is organized as a kind of diagram; major blocks of information are both
separated and related to one another in a visual configuration.
64 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 50, NO. 1, MARCH 2007

a much more restrained way than shown in Fig. 3. here it emerges implicitly from visual symmetry and
The primary difference is that the two sets of three unity rather than from distracting imagery.
bullets make one reliable generalization: images are
in these three ways the very opposite of diagrams. The central insight here is that the transformation
from Fig. 1 (unreadable raw text) to Fig. 4 (text with
When bullets lose this at-a-glance unity, then they readable document design) is identical in principle
lose their informative properties and “degenerate” to the transformation shown in Fig. 5, the shift
as it were to a merely indicative, visually diverse between a raw photographic image and a processed
list (compare Figs. 3 and 4). In Fig. 4, indicative diagram (=map). The map (=diagram) extracts from
bullets are kept to a minimum and serve a visually the image only a relatively few clear contrasts,
unified point when used. Likewise, a minimum separates relevant details with white space, and
decorative aesthetic is necessary in any text, and creates a visually unified generalization.

Fig. 5. Image versus diagram: contrast between raw text and readable text parallels the contrast between a raw
satellite and a map of the same area (both readily obtained from Google.com).
AMARE AND MANNING: THE LANGUAGE OF VISUALS: TEXT + GRAPHICS = VISUAL RHETORIC 65

This parallel between text processing and image from the sign types of raw text (VIII–X) and shows
processing is inherent in Peirce’s unified rhetorical how diagrams, demonstratives, and indicators
system, as shown in Fig. 5, top right. Raw images mediate between image and text. Three additional
reflect the feelings, signs, and actions of direct presentations in Fig. 6 help show why the 10-class
experience (Roman numerals I-II-III-IV in Fig. 5). system has exactly the shape that it does.
Text is made up of words, sentences, and discourse
(Roman numerals VIII-IX-X in Fig. 5). Both of these In Fig. 6, different aspects of Peirce’s 10-class
regions, according to Peirce, must be mediated by system are revealed by different visual
diagrams, demonstratives, and indicators (Roman presentations: from the top, each corner of the
numerals V-VI-VII in Fig. 5) in order to be grasped pyramid (I, IV, X) represents the far extreme of
as information [5, p. 2.280]. decorative, indicative, or informative effect. All
other sign types are intermediates between these
In Peirce’s system, the underlying meaning of any extremes, as shown. From the center of Fig. 6,
word, sentence, or any longer text (Fig. 5, top left) Peirce’s pyramid can be subdivided into a smaller
must be understood as a diagram or other icon triangle of icon types, a subtriangle of index types,
(Fig. 5, top right), either visually or in some other and a subtriangle of symbol types. (The center type
sensory mode, either consciously or unconsciously. VI is technically also an index but contains iconic
The meaning of any verbal information, if it is and symbolic elements, which is why it is in the
understood, has to be transformed into both central position of the pyramid.) From the bottom of
perception (i.e., what we would see, hear, or Fig. 6, the inverted pyramid represents a continuum
feel if the information is true) and action (i.e., between concrete action (the low=concrete point
how we would act if the information is true). in the pyramid) and two very distinct kinds
As indicated in Fig. 5, top and bottom right, of abstraction (the high=abstract corners), as
this transformation only can occur through the postulated by Peirce: abstractions from direct
mediation of diagrammatic forms, supported by experience (e.g., redness abstracted from seeing
demonstrative labels and indicators. Good textual a red ball) versus abstractions from relationships
formatting is thus no different in principle from a understood but not directly experienced (e.g.,
well-structured diagram. understanding that Bob and Ed are cousins, where
no direct experience defines this understanding:
It is difficult to process an unfamiliar raw image cousins do not look or act in any perceptually
just as it is difficult to process a large block consistent way).
of unfamiliar raw text. The transformation of
either into an interpretable form requires a
diagrammatic analysis. A writer/editor can either CONNECTIONS TO PREVIOUS RESEARCH AND TO
leave to the reader the entire work of this mental CLASSROOM PRACTICE
transformation, or the writer/editor can do some Visual rhetoric should be taught as the common
of this processing, in advance, on behalf of the visual deployment of the language of text and
reader. Whether working with image or raw text, graphics; that is, visual rhetoric goes beyond basic
the transformation is the same, the extraction of a document design issues to include the rhetoric of
relatively few clear contrasts, separating labeled both textual visuals and graphics visuals where
blocks of information with white space, to create a the author, message, and audience all connect.
visually unified generalization. A problem in the teaching of visuals occurs
when we separate graphics pedagogy from text
It is critically important that an author have a
pedagogy where text is what you read and graphics
specific rhetorical purpose in mind (when selecting
are what you see. Moreover, splitting document
from either raw image or raw text) in choosing
design issues from graphics chapters in technical
particular visual contrasts and in creating an
communication textbooks may have helped us to
overall visual generalization. This point is further
better “see the text” for its visual properties, but
illustrated in Fig. 6. Peirce’s 10-class system
it has done very little to help us read all visuals
can be presented in different ways visually, each
rhetorically or to teach our students to create
visual-contrast choice showing a different aspect of
effective graphics based on the rhetorical situation
the logic of the system. The pyramid table in Fig. 4
[6]. As a result, visual deployment consistently
emphasizes the connection between each of Peirce’s
defaults to decorative strategies.
roman-numeral classifications and contemporary
examples of each type. Fig. 5 (top right) divides Today, students are most likely adept enough
the sign types of raw perception/raw action (I–IV) at the rudiments of layout that they will place
66 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 50, NO. 1, MARCH 2007

the image effectively on the screen and achieve largely unprocessed, as in Fig. 5, top left. We
a nicely-balanced [sic] visual composition. But would again emphasize that VISUAL means graphics
the image will often be mere decoration, a and/or text alike, namely “the ways in which words
graphical weight to offset the pull of a text field become images—that is, the ways in which the
or a row of buttons. [7, p. 33] visual nature of text becomes part of that text’s
meaning and rhetorical purpose” [8, p. 43]. If the
rhetorical goal of the visual is informative, then
We would emphasize here that if the graphic the author has failed to reach his or her audience
defaults to decorative image, then the text likewise by choosing decorative instead of informative
defaults to image also, meaning that the words will visuals (see Fig. 5). Therefore, effective visual
be seen, but the information content will remain rhetoric is more than readability; it is the force of

Fig. 6. Distinct visual contrasts chosen for distinct rhetorical purposes.

AMARE AND MANNING: THE LANGUAGE OF VISUALS: TEXT + GRAPHICS = VISUAL RHETORIC 67

the message on the audience based on authorial TABLE I

choices matched with audience needs. EHSES’S VISUAL RHETORIC INCLUDES NO INFORMATIVE
STRATEGIES (ADAPTED FROM [9, P. 189])
We advocate approaching visual rhetoric
discussions by addressing graphics first via
Peirce’s decorative, indicative, and informative
strategies and then moving quickly to illustrations
of these rhetorical strategies in textual visuals,
as exemplified in Figs. 2, 3, and 4. We have used
this approach in both our technical editing and
visual rhetoric courses with much success, by
demanding that our students analyze graphics and
textual visuals (think and respond critically based
on the rhetorical situation) instead of only reacting
emotionally to the images (just “seeing” what
they like/do not like). This approach helps them
to gauge whether the combination of decorative,
indicative, and informative features is aiding or Similarly, Blair uses Benetton ads to show a
impeding knowledge-making. multi-premised visual argument against racism
[10]. These ads use the same rhetorical moves found
One way to initiate students into the treatment in oral and written text arguments. Again, the moves
of visual rhetoric as rhetoric and not document Blair describes are decorative evocations of feeling
design only is to discuss persuasion, one of the and indicative provocations to action, and these are
cornerstones of traditional oral (and later, written) useful when the goal is advertisement, as is the case
rhetoric. Most students are familiar with Aristotle’s with Macbeth posters and clothing ads. However,
logos, ethos, and pathos. They may also be familiar because much of technical communication involves
with figurative devices such as synecdoche, information, we need a visual rhetoric system that
metonymy, hyperbole, etc. Although students also includes informative strategies. Such would
may have been trained to recognize these devices include systems of comparison simultaneous with
semantically in written text, they may struggle contrast, explanations by analogical resemblance,
when identifying these in images and photographs models of causes and their contiguous effects,
or in recognizing how textual elements as visuals and measurements that allow gradation to be
(e.g., white space, borders, shading, font style, size, quantified. Texts and graphics that include these
and emphasis) contribute to the rhetorical function informative kinds of rhetorical figures must both be
of these devices in the service of authorial intention carefully organized visually, using the same kinds
and audience expectations. of diagrammatic principles.

Using Macbeth posters as an example, Ehses urges When authors and technical illustrators move
designers to be “more conscious of the underlying away from decorative/indicative images, they
system of concept formation” [9, p. 187]. Ehses move into the informative-cognitive realm. Image
applies both semiotic and rhetorical theory to strategies work well for literature and advertising,
create persuasive visual rhetoric based on 10 but technical communicators must make the move
figures of speech, sorted into four rhetorical figures to diagrammatic, informative strategies in nearly
or functions (see Table I). all visuals—text and graphics alike—for technical
informative purposes. This kind of diagram-based
rhetoric was effectively pioneered by McCloud,
It is critically important to recognize that although
who employed a comic-book format in his book
Ehses offers a vocabulary for analyzing visual
Understanding Comics to demonstrate his primary
rhetoric that is familiar to most students who have
thesis: that cartoons are more effective than images
studied literature, these figures are of relatively
to communicate ideas because of their persuasive
little use when the message is informative. As
minimalist “amplification through simplification”
might be appropriate for purely persuasive appeals,
approach.
all of Ehses’s figures serve indicative or decorative
strategies, either to provoke an audience to actively When we abstract an image through cartooning
notice a contrast or to evoke in an audience some we’re not so much eliminating details as we
quality of feeling (see Column 3 of Table I). are focusing on specific details. By stripping
68 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 50, NO. 1, MARCH 2007

down an image to its essential “meaning,” an serve the desired goal of persuasion: readers are
artist can amplify that meaning in a way that made to feel a certain way about a topic by means
realistic art can’t . Cartooning isn’t just a way of the feeling-evoking decorative forms, and then
of drawing; it’s a way of seeing. [11, p. 30-31] readers are led to act a certain way (e.g., to buy
a product, or attend a performance, or vote for a
In Peirce’s categorization of visual types (Figs. 4, candidate) by means of action-provoking indicative
5, and 6), it becomes apparent that cartoons are forms. In contrast, indicative and informative
a kind of diagram, specifically diagrams deployed strategies combine in other ways to serve the
to create narrative. What McCloud says about distinct goals of technical instructions: readers
the conceptual power of cartoons versus images are led to act through the bulleted steps indicated
applies equally to diagrammatically organized text in the instructions (e.g., to operate a piece of
(e.g., a text formatted as a comic book) as opposed machinery), but these actions must be guided by
to any visually undifferentiated block of text (e.g., clear information, tips, notes, and explanations in
a traditional scholarly treatise, page after page of the instructions, invariably best encapsulated in
block text with few paragraph breaks). Raw images some diagrammatic form.
and block text alike do not “pass easily into the
realm of ideas” [11, p. 91]. Textual and graphic diagrams best serve
the purposes of technical information while
We are certainly not the first to advocate a decorative/indicative images best serve the
combined semiotic system of text and graphics purposes of persuasion, to evoke feeling and
in order to improve visual literacy. Stroupe, for provoke actions. In this tutorial, we have
example, argues for a hybrid literacy by connecting emphasized this critical difference between images
words and images dialogically [12]. Dragga and and diagrams, a distinction largely overlooked in
Voss also mention the need to better integrate prior treatments of visual rhetoric which have been
words and pictures but specifically with the goal primarily image-based, primarily decorative-feeling
of improving ethics [13]. Horn’s semantic fusion and indicative-action based, and therefore less
likewise encourages the rhetoricity of text and applicable to the communication of technical
visuals, which may be accomplished through a information.
multiple integration of such rhetorical devices as
metaphor, metonymy, and synecdoche [14]. In conclusion, we would illustrate this primary
distinction between decorative, indicative,
To these proposals, we now add the clarification and informative visual display with a thought
that combining graphics and text is not actually a experiment suitable for classroom presentation.
hybridization, nor an integration, nor a fusion of
inherently distinct rhetorical types. Both graphics The instructor places any kind of odd-looking
and text are visuals to begin with and are governed gadget on the table in front of the class and asks
by the same rhetorical principles, specifically the the students to imagine that this is a working
principles enumerated by C. S. Peirce. This tutorial cold-fusion device. Immersed in a bucket of
is simply the latest in a series of studies which have ordinary tap water, this one unit will produce a
applied Peirce’s principles to various problems in constant current of electricity but only barely
contemporary technical communication [15]–[21]. enough to power the average home (say, for
convincing effect, 12 volts at 50 amps). Emphasize
that there is just this one working device in the
CONCLUSION whole world, perhaps created by space aliens
The purpose of this tutorial is to provide and beyond anyone’s ability to figure out how to
professional communicators, students and reproduce it. Emphasize that, if this one device
practitioners alike, with a basic three-pronged cannot be reproduced, its monetary value is limited
approach to visual rhetoric based on the rhetorical to the average home’s monthly electric bill plus
functions of decorative, indicative, and informative whatever admission you might charge people who
strategies. These strategies are governed by the would pay to see it for themselves.
same principles in all visuals, in both graphics and
text. The class should be asked to compare the relative
effects and the relative value of each of these
Combinations of these primary elements elicit distinct representations of the cold fusion device:
more complex goals/functions such as when • pure decorative—a poem about the device, or an
decorative and indicative strategies combine to impressionistic painting of it
AMARE AND MANNING: THE LANGUAGE OF VISUALS: TEXT + GRAPHICS = VISUAL RHETORIC 69

• decorative/indicative—a photograph of the In forms of communication with the highest value,

device, or a detailed verbal description; the text and the graphics must be one.
• pure indicative—a checklist of all the identifiable
parts of the device, or separate photographs of
the parts from various angles;
• indicative/informative—a list of all parts of the REFERENCES
device, with step-by-step instructions on how to
make each part from materials available at any [1] C. Handa, Ed., Visual Rhetoric in a Digital World: A
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[19] T. L. Chambers, A. Manning, and L. J. Theriot, AL, where she teaches technical writing, editing, stylistics, and
“A new theory for the assignment of members to grammar. She has written Real Life University, a college success
engineering design teams,” presented at the Proc. guide, and has edited Global Student Entrepreneurs, Beyond the
ASEE Gulf-Southwest Annual Conf., Las Cruces, Lemonade Stand, and Giving Back.
NM, 2000, Paper 76B2.
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42, no. 2, pp. 123–127, Jun. 1999. Alan Manning is a Professor of Linguistics and English
Language at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. He
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comics,” IEEE Trans. Prof. Commun., vol. 41, no. 1, undergraduate courses in semiotics, semantics, technical
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Professional Writing in Science and Technology, Business, and
Nicole Amare is an Assistant Professor of Technical the Social Sciences (with Riley, Campbell, and Parker, 1999,
Communication at the University of South Alabama, Mobile, Parlay Press).