For the upcoming semester, I have been ineffectual in locating what I believe to be appropriate readings for teaching a first year composition (FYC) course where I'd like to engage my students in discussions and writings about argument and image (i.e., visual rhetoric). Personally I believe visuals amplify what we percieve to be truthful, but the truth carries different meanings for each of us because of the way we were socially calibrated into our world. We get a dose of this rhetoric when we watch television, or play video games, or read the newspaper, or look at family photos, or read a book, or as we watch someone walk toward us...and I could go on.
Anyhow, I haven't been able to locate what I would consider to be viable texts for FYC students to read. Much of what I'm running into are theory-based readings about visual communication, visual argument, image, and so forth. If I locate a good descriptive story (have lots), the stories have no images. If I locate a good mix of story and image, it's a graphic novel or cartoon. I'm finding that a written description is a powerful means for conjuring imagery. Any other texts that I've located are more business specific (instructions, brochures, white papers, etcetera), and are not what I'd like to promote in an introductory, "let me introduce you to academic writing" FYC. If you have ideas, please share.
On the contrary, what I'm beginning to realize is this: if we read and there are no pictures within the text, the descriptive parts of the text calls on us to use a kind of dexterity, by forcing us to visualize images, and it calls on us to use reasoning to make sense of what we are perceiving. In that moment, we are recalling fragmented patterns of objects, scenes, encounters and requiring them to help us solidify the description in order for that description to make sense. If we read, and an image is somehow juxtaposed in some relative relation to the text, we don't necessarily need to recall those fragments. What's before us has already been proven to exist, merely by the additive of the image. Sometimes, the text is made plain to us because of this, and sometimes we still struggle to recall those fragmented images that remain poised, waiting to be charged.
In my searching, I found that H. Allen Brizee, in his dissertation, Teaching Visual Literacy and Document Design in First-Year Composition, wanted to discuss the visual in one of his FYCs as well, but he also wanted to teach colonial and postcolonial literature of Africa. It seems that his ultimate goal was to have the students be able to write beyond the first year (i.e. prepare them to write business and civic documents), yet he still had to meet the reqirements implemented for teaching FYC. Although his course seemed to be geared toward a second year FYC, he managed to instruct his students from inquiry to argument to document design; thus ultimately, producing a report with visuals. I value his research and ideas here. We should do more of this kind of work in FYC. I'm planning to piggy back Brizee's idea, but I will be mellowing it out a bit for a first year FYC. And no, my focus will not be to teach and have students research colonial and postcolonial literature of Africa. My priority is to move my students from inquiry to analysis to argument. My plan is to implement the visual by introducing some genre and theory of visual rhetoric, some genre and theory in illustration, and yes, to proclaim some good old rhetorical theory. Now, I'll shoot my syllabus off to the approval board and see what happens.
