Visual rhetoric sounds like a dauting topic, and in many ways it is.  It can refer to the analysis of images, the use of images as argument, and the study of a wide range of topics related to the use or cultural impact of images.  As a tutor-in-training, it is important for you to know a little about visuals--how they can be used to create an argument or how to analyze the use of visuals--in order to help students in Introductory Composition with their visual projects.

 You know more about visuals and visual rhetoric than you may think.  Consider all of the printed or electronic documents you see on a daily basis.  Even if they are text-based documents and include no graphics, there is a visual component because of things like font style, language, color, how the text is arranged and so forth.

 I've attached 3 files to this post.  Each is an image of a familiar document.  Look at each image and answer the following questions:

1.  Identify each document.  What is the purpose of each? 

2.  Who is the audience for each document?  How do you know? 

3.  How can you identify the document?  What familiar components exist in these samples that make them recognizable for they are (genres)?  What visual components of the documents are important to its genre?