English 680V: Visual Rhetoric in a Technological Age (Purdue)

As a student in professional writing, I have taken many courses about rhetoric and the way(s) it interacts with people, cultures, and contexts. I have always been interested in the way that medium and message coalesce to produce communication. However, I do not have the kind of background I want and know I’ll need in the areas of visual rhetoric, design, and technology.

For this project, I would like to explore the visual display of information as it relates to and supplements/complements the areas of professional and technical communication. I am interested in researching one or more of the following areas: the interaction of and relationship between text, images, and space; the shape or representation of visual information; the effective use of visuals; differing uses of visuals in academia and the workplace.

My end goal with the project is to acquire knowledge of the visual components present in and necessary for professional/technical communication; this knowledge can benefit work in both academia and industry. Early research on these subjects will include the work of Edward Tufte, Charles Kostelnick, and Howard Gardener in visual rhetoric and the shaping of visual and spatial language.