Bernhardt IWA

Since I was on Apparatus Group One, I helped write the summary and "Framing the Reading" for this assignment and am using that same information for this assignment as well:

When we sit down and think about what makes a text visually appealing, do we think of the smooth left margin with the occasional indentation, the way the lines are perfectly spaced down the page, or whether the font is serif or sans serif? Probably not. But we may forget that texts can be more than words. They can be advertisements, data sheets, technical reports, résumés, web pages, or letters home. They can include graphics, tables, and charts and changes in font and text size. Now think for a minute about the beginnings of written communication. Did ancient Egyptians develop a phonetic alphabet before they began chiseling history on walls? Were the first recordings of life on cave walls done with words?

Images worked then in a similar way to how they work now, as effective visual communication, especially to a writing illiterate population. As we moved forward over the centuries, still most of the population was writing illiterate and communication was either verbal or through images. Not until the advent of the printing press was there a way to distribute written information to the masses. Today, we use a mixture of written, verbal, and visual communications, sometimes all at once.

In “Seeing the Text,” Bernhardt looks at the way written and visual communications can work together, and he tries to open our eyes so that we can truly see how visuals and text augment each other.

The questions I will have my students complete are:

●      Look at (but don’t read) a piece of writing printed in a newspaper, magazine, news website, or blog. Take notes about the visual aspect of how the writing is presented. Do any images accompany the article? Do you see any charts or tables? Are there any headings or lists?

I am reading an advertisement that promotes healthy body images by Dove. The text is written in the pattern of  a woman's body, following an hourglass figure. My eyes are automatically lured to the figure and shape. It shows how the hourglass has changed over time as to what is expected of a woman's body shape and the white space in between the waist line. It is significantly smaller now compared to what it was 50 years ago. The writing is presented as the years and time. The chart and heading promote "bringing back space and freedom."

 QD 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 struggle with reading long pieces that have typical indention and small print. It feels much more dense and dreadful than something with visual explanation or varied chunks of points with outright headings. I enjoy reading, I just also enjoy visual stimulant and variation in text. 

AE 2:

Take a word document that you have created for this class. Change the font to a font you have never heard of or are not familiar with. How does it change the way you understand or interpret the text?

I have chosen to take a Teaching Journal assignment and change the font to Helvetica. It makes the document much more personal and journal-like and even intimate, as if it is part of the lost art of handwritten letters. It created  newness and an explorative aspect.

After You Read:

How would Scott McCloud have represented Bernhardt’s argument?

I think Scott McCloud would have incorporated visual examples of his argument, such as varying texts and pictures and maybe even had a narrator following the text in comic form.

MM:

 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?

I think that visual representations should exist for all texts, whether it be n form of outlines in the beginning or interesting framing devices with subheadings that incorporate thoughts. I think our multi-media essay will promote the most visualization.