1. 7/2/2015 Designing Visual Language 1 Notes to Chapter One English 308

2. 7/2/2015 Designing Visual Language 2 Rhetorical Situation Audience Purpose Context Text

3. 7/2/2015 Designing Visual Language 3 Audience those who will use your document: who they are, what they know about the subject, their previous experience with documents like the one you’re designing; even their cultural background.

4. 7/2/2015 Designing Visual Language 4 Purpose what you want your document to accomplish: persuade your readers to think or act a certain way, enable them to perform a task, help them understand something, change their attitude, and so on.

5. 7/2/2015 Designing Visual Language 5 Context the circumstances in which readers will use your document and/or the conventions which limit what choices you have in achieving your purpose.

6. 7/2/2015 Designing Visual Language 6 Rhetorical Strategies Arrangement Emphasis Clarity Conciseness Tone Ethos

7. 7/2/2015 Designing Visual Language 7 Arrangement/Emphasis Arrangement—Order, the organization of visual elements (including text) to show relationships, sequences, hierarchies and so on. Emphasis—what information stands out

8. 7/2/2015 Designing Visual Language 8 Clarity/Conciseness Clarity—helps the reader understand the document quickly and easily (clarity covers virtually every feature of a document) Conciseness—refers to visual bulk and intricacy (the opposite of visual concision is often called “clutter”)

9. 7/2/2015 Designing Visual Language 9 Tone/Ethos Tone—the “attitude” towards your subject and towards your audience conveyed by the text and design Ethos—whether the audience believes you (trusts you)

10. 7/2/2015 Designing Visual Language 10 Conventions: What Readers Expect

11. 7/2/2015 Designing Visual Language 11 Conventions: Conventions are the “rules” that govern any piece of conventional discourse. In fact, we could say that belonging to a discourse community almost entirely revolves around knowing what the conventions are, how flexible they are, and whether they apply to a small or large group.

12. 7/2/2015 Designing Visual Language 12 Some guidelines for using conventions are: 1. Identify relevant conventions for any design problem you’re trying to solve 2. Realize that some conventions are more rigid than others. 3. Think of conventions in terms of your readers, who give them meaning and significance