Persuading Visually

Theory into Practice

This final section showcases my abilities to extend rhetorical theory past the text and use it in a visual way.  In Roman times, Cicero harped on Style as a rhetorical advantage in the art of persuasion, and more than two thousand years later Style is being used in a way that he never thought of.  Utilizing different fonts, formats, colors, images, video, etc. in a creative and accessible way can persuade an audience just as effectively as a well-crafted essay.  The idea of creating a user-centered document still holds strong; however, in this case, the idea of “document” takes on a new look. 

I’ve supplied three examples of such practice: a University House Review, instructional videos produced for Elon University’s library, and an informational booklet about PWR for current and future students that is as much about its design as it is the text inside of it.  The audiences for these pieces vary widely, ranging from random University administrators to the entire students body as well as librarians, to current and prospective PWR students.  This section lays out my ability to adapt to any audience in any particular case and create a document (or video) whose visual appeal plays as large a role of persuasion as does the text.

Visual Engagement

It is often difficult to engage in discourse community visually when the purpose of the piece lies in its text.  There is a complexity in understanding and responding to the rhetorical decisions behind a visual piece, especially when the primary focus of the piece is textual, and then producing a piece of your own that allows others to do the same while also curbing some of that complexity.   However, I chose these three documents because they do just that. 

The House Review is now a template that Greek Life shows to other fraternities and sororities as an example of how others might format their own house reviews.  In its completion, I used a raw, unpublished review from the three years before me and tweaked it so that it could be formatted more effectively visually.  The videos were originally based on other library and instructional videos from other universities and were created for Elon University students specifically, and since their creation have given other students at Elon the possibility of carrying on that series and creating other instructional videos.  Lastly, the informational booklet was created by following a booklet format, using the knowledge of all the PWR students in the class to produce something effective, and as its audience is current and future PWR students, those that read this piece are likely to attempt to duplicate the level of professionalism displayed in the final product.