Reading Response No. 9

Getting Ready to Read:

●      Look at text heavy advertisement. Analyze how the text is working in conjunction with the image. Where are you most drawn? Does the image emphasize the text, or does the text emphasize the image? Write out your thoughts.

When looking at a text heavy advertisement, I am usually drawn to the text. However, I think that the image could emphisize the text or the text could emphisize the image. This would depend on how the advertisement is et up, or which one they are trying to sell you; the text or the image. If the advertisement is for a physical product, then the text would compliment the image of what it is trying to sell you. However, if the advertisement is for something like a service, an image would compliment the text telling you about the service being provided.

Summary:
In his article, "Seeing the Text," Bernhardt attempts to show writers the importance that visuals play in writng. He argues that communication can be done not only with the written word, but with pictures as well. This is because pictures can not only compliment writing, they can also help get the message across to the audience since humans identify and communicate with pictures so often and well.

Synthesis:
This writing can be related back to the "Vocabulary of Comics" article we read by Scott McCloud. Both articles discuss how images are a great tool that humans use to communicate, and that simple words on a page are not the only way to convey ideas.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

1.       Bernhardt characterizes the typical classroom essay as consisting of “full, declarative sentences, arranged in paragraphs with low visual identity” (36). Do you struggle with generating or reading this conventional, low-visual type of writing? Why or why not?

I do sometimes struggle with this type of writing only because it's easy for me to lose focus or lose my place when I'm reading. When there are pictures or some sort of visual model, however, it is easier to understand a concept if there is a visual example of it along with a written explanation.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1.       Think of the writing projects you have been assigned to do in this course, in other college courses, or in high school. Have there been any times when you used an unconventional visual structure outside of usual essay format? How might you use visual strategies to present your writing in the future?

In high school, I was assigned to write a paper about education reform. The topic that I focused on was the high school dropout rate and how it can be improved. In the begining of the paper I gave a little backround on the topic and used a couple graphs to show different statistics of the dropout rate through the years. I may use visual strategies such as this to show things like statistics in a paper or to give a visual example to the reader.

After You Read:
How would Scott McCloud have represented Bernhardt’s argument?
McCloud probably have represented this argument by explaining the whole argument in pictures instead of writing about it, like he did in his article, "Vocabulary of Comics." This, however, would perhaps make the reader see the entire argument in a different way.

Meta Moment:

Bernhardt writes, “By studying actual texts as they function in particular contexts, we can gain an improved understanding of what constitute appropriate, effective strategies of rhetorical organization” (44). In what particular contexts do you consider visually thinking about text to be most appropriate? Of all the formal writing assignments in this course, which one calls for the most visual thinking about presentation of text?

Thinking about text is most appropriate when one needs aid in understanding the material they're reading. Reading something then looking at a picture of it could help them comprehend their reading. I think out of all the reading I have done in this class, this article and the article by Scott McCloud both call for the most visual thinking about text because that is what those two articles are about; visual images in text and how we identify with them and use them in writing.

Personal Response:
I thought this article made interesting points about thinking about texts visually. I believe that trying this in reading and writing would be useful to both myslef and my audience.