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last.updated 9.11.05

 

Visual Rhetoric Exercise

Purpose
To give you the opportunity to think about what is important when analyzing a text visually and practice reading visual arguments.

Instructions

Wysocki's article provides many suggestions for thinking about visual design, especially when writing with computers and for the web. Using her theories on visual design, develop three heuristics for analyzing the visual design of a web page. Remember that a heuristic is a prompt or a question that gets used to understand a situation. For example, one set of heuristics for analyzing visual design may be: How much skills is needed to needed to generate this text? How do you know this?

Then choose a web page (not a web site) and use your three heuristics to analyze the text. After answering your three questions, draw conclusions about the rhetorical effectiveness of the this web page.

Your 250-300 word presentation should be organized as such:

  • Three heuristics
  • The URL for the web site; include the http://... in the URL.
  • Analysis with conclusion

Submit your work prior to class (7 pm) in the body of an email addressed to the instructor.