Week 4: Tee-Shirts, Visual Rhetoric, and Publicity

"Join Hands," Mike Baird, CC BY 2.0

This image, to the left, is a picture from the "Hands Across the Sand" organization. This group regularly advertises for citizens to meet at specific times at beaches (for instance, 12:00 p.m. on June 25 in Misquamicut). Their purpose is to raise awareness of the ocean and beach pollution and it is a powerful sight to see a group of folks standing for miles joined in hands for a cause.

Nevertheless, this is just one example of a type of visual rhetoric you might employ to bring awareness to a cause, and one could easily imagine seeing a picture like this on a tee-shirt with the words "join hands". Just those three elements, the two words and the image would certainly be a great example of a visual argument (although that isn't a tee-shirt I am aware exists).

For this week's post, then, I ask you to upload a copy of the tee-shirt image you made in.gif, .jpeg, .tiff, or other image files. In other words, post your draft of the visual argument associated with Project 3. Use two-three sentences to describe the visual argument and how you would think others might "read/interpret" this argument if they were to encounter it in a public place like a supermarket or a restaurant. Then, pick one of the readings from either this week or last week that you haven't written about, yet. Explain in 2-3 paragraphs how the visual argument you've created connects to some element of public writing as defined/outlined in one of the readings. Then, you are asked to comment on a peer's visual argument and post. Explain what elements they might improve upon. For instance, perhaps, the font is hard to read or the argument as a whole may be too 'offensive' for publics? Use the comment feature to post a response to a peer's blog.  Your post due to Tuesday at 10 pm. Responses due by Wednesday at 5pm.