Visual rhetoric and composition

Landscape photo showing students hanging up visual rhetoric posters
Students in writing, rhetoric, and literacy courses at the postsecondary level exhibit visual rhetoric and composition projects.
Selves in Systems: A Rhetorical Arts Installation

The study and practice of visual rhetoric took a more prominent role in the field of composition studies towards the end of the twentieth century and onward. Proponents of its inclusion in composition typically point to the increasingly visual nature of society, and the increasing presence of visual texts. Literacy, they argue, can no longer be limited only to written text and must also include an understanding of the visual.[1][2]

Despite this focus on new media, the inclusion of visual rhetoric in composition studies is distinct from a media theory of composition, though the two are obviously related. Visual rhetoric focuses on the rhetorical nature of all visual texts while new media tends to focus on electronic mediums.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference George2002 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hill2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).