We’ve heard the adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” But how exactly do visual texts work as writing? Do pictures tell “the truth” or do they offer persuasive arguments about their subjects? How are political cartoons and advertisements visual/verbal combinations that powerfully persuade viewers to accept their positions? In this course, we’ll explore the rhetoric of the visual world across many disciplines and areas of contemporary culture – from covers of scientific journals to photojournalism, from political cartoons to cross-cultural advertisements. You’ll learn how to understand and harness visual rhetoric in order to analyze, utilize, and produce persuasive visual texts of your own. First, you’ll write a rhetorical analysis on a visual text that strongly moves you. Then, with the help of interdisciplinary models, you’ll create a feature article project exploring multiple sides of a potential research area by writing on three images of your choice. Next, we’ll move into the research project: an argument on how visual rhetoric has shaped the contours of a debate of your choosing. Through a series of library workshops and collaborative writing activities, you’ll master the process of research and argumentation while also implementing your expertise with visual rhetoric in crafting your paper. The course will conclude with innovation and creativity: you’ll have the opportunity to produce powerful and persuasive multimedia presentations that harness visual rhetoric for purposeful communication with the class! This course will introduce you to many of Stanford’s research resources and will be taught in a computer classroom.
“Rhetoric’s classic definition as the art of persuasion suggests a power. So much of what we receive from others – from family and friends to thirty-second blurbs on TV – is intended to persuade. Recognizing how this is done gives greater power to choose.”
– Victor Villanueva, Jr. Bootstraps: From an American Academic of Color (1993)
