For my project I've settled on a topic I've been fairly concerned with over the past 2 years or so doing my Master's. I want to make the claim that comics, and more broadly, visual rhetoric have a specific place in the ethics behind technical communication. It is hard for me to approach this topic without doing some more research, so I've taken it upon myself to read more in to how comics and sequential art tie in to the relaying of technical communication in today's world. In doing this, I want to specifically situate my argument in the role that ethics plays when considering using a mixture of visual and textual rhetoric to make a technical document.
To analyze this sort of argument or to make a dialogue out of it I think there are multiple different approaches I can use. I'm leaning more towards the Toulmin model of claim, warrant, data to make a logical and specific dialogue that will appeal to a wider audience. Having said that, I think Perelman's idea on the specific and universal audience also plays a large role in having a dialogue surrounding ethical implications of using a mix of visual and textual rhetoric in the form of sequential art. In the digital age how does sequential art change to accommodate this shift from paper to screen? How does this shift change the ethical implications of this delivery method? In thinking about this delivery shift, who is the audience? How do we develop sequential art in such a way that it delivers the messages we need to the audience intended accounting for this shift?
There are a multitude of questions that I could go on for here, but I'm focusing on these types of questions to develop my dialogue for this assignment.
I'm not sure exactly if this will tie in, but my TC professor at UIW introduced us to Lego instruction manuals. One in particular, to build the Millenium Falcon, had ZERO words - only color pictures. Granted, it's not a graphic novel, but it definitely made an impression on me - this manual could reach across cultural rhetoric issues because the rhetorical is strictly visual.
ReplyDeleteMichael - this sounds really interesting. Selfishly, I am rereading your post because I am still trying to wrap my head around the details of this assignment and I really like the questions you are asking. So would your initial (larger) question be something that you try to resolve through the dialectic? Would you use the latter questions to help explain why comics should be seen and valued as tech com?
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of work on the comments aren't coming out of the University Florida. But as I mentioned during class there have been some really good studies done by your peers already at TT you. Again, if you would like to have access to some of those I can certainly send them your way. And I do have a significant collection now of criticism on comics art. You would be welcome to borrow anything that I have. I give a presentation in Oregon not too long ago on ways to use comics to teach writing. Have you thought about using a graphic novel format for this assignment?
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