Due by the class on 11/17

Meet your team to discuss your next steps, and post an individual Progress Report on your own course blog by 11/17 reporting information on the following:

-What have you done as a group for your Client Project so far? What have you individually done to contribute to the project so far?

-As a group, create an action plan and a work schedule with a list of tasks you will complete by certain dates in order to finish a Usability Testing Draft by November 24th.  What are your group’s next steps? What will be your own tasks to complete during this process?

Image credit webportal WP-Client Management Portal

Due by the class on 10/20

1)The purpose of your blogging this time is to produce some writing for your upcoming paper (the final paper is due by the end of the day on October 29). Use the guidelines for the Case Study of Visual Communication (see Canvas) to draft at least four paragraphs for your case study (they can be for any section of the case study: introduction/background, body paragraphs, or conclusion). Your paragraphs don’t have to be perfect: you can keep revising them until the submission deadline. You need to post at least four paragraphs, but feel free to draft and post more.

2) Also include the following in this posting: Review the readings for Tuesday’s class, and identify an idea or a quote from either Kinross’ article or Williams’ Non-Designer’s Design Book (chapters 6/7) which can somehow apply to your upcoming case study. Post the idea/quote, and explain (in 1-2 sentences) how it might apply to your texts or topics to investigate in your study. (The objective is to form links; you don’t have to eventually use the quote in your case study.)

Due by the class on 10/08

This posting has two parts. You might want to check the prompts ahead of time and set aside enough time to complete your research, readings, and writing for this posting.

1) Blog about your idea for your upcoming Case Study of Visual Communication! In the first week of classes and during our class last Thursday, we discussed that you will write an 8-page conference paper to make an argument about how a specific term, idea, or concept (or terms, ideas, concepts) from our course readings and discussions this semester can be applied to the texts of your choosing. The texts (artifacts under analysis) don’t have to be visual entirely but should make a significant use of visual imagery and should provide you with enough substance to analyze in an 8-page paper. First, make sure you have reviewed the assignment guidelines posted on Canvas. In a few paragraphs, discuss the possible texts you will analyze (consider including some media in this posting), and identify the possible perspectives from the class you will apply to these texts, as well as the broader issue that you will explore through this analysis (hunger, education, gender equality, etc).

Be creative! Also feel free to skim the readings scheduled for the class days after the announcement of this assignment. If you are in doubt about readings that haven’t been discussed yet, you might want to stick with what you already know. But, don’t hesitate to explore possibilities! I will review your topic postings within a week to approve of your topic.

2) Review the readings for Thursday’s class. Identify a quote from either Doumont’s article or Williams’ Non-Designer’s Design Book, which can somehow apply to your upcoming case study. Post the quote, and explain (in 2-3 sentences) how it might apply to your texts or topics to investigate in your study. (The objective is to form links; you don’t have to eventually use the quote in your case study.)

Due by the class on 10/06

Blog about the reading due for our class on 10/6: Sturken “The Wall, the Screen, and the Image.”

1) What are the central terms that Sturken discusses from a rhetorical perspective?

2) What terms or ideas seem most important for people surrounding the development of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial?

3) What distinguishes a monument from a memorial?

4) Based on the qualities associated with each memorial, what are the purposes of Maya Lin’s memorial and Frederick Hart’s bronze sculpture (of the three soldiers that was placed the memorial in 1984)?

*Add media (an image or a video) that, you feel, resonate with your responses.

Image borrowed from My Old Towne Orange Blog

Due by the class on 9/22

Respond to the following prompt based on the readings due for our class on 9/22:

1) Birdsell & Groarke “Toward a Theory of Visual Argument”

2) Blair “The Possibility and Actuality of Visual Arguments”

Write down at least one take-home point from each article, and illustrate each point with an example medium (an image, a video, etc)—choose one medium for each image. Explain how the selected medium (your selected image, video clip, etc) illustrates the take-home point—what are the links you can form between the the medium and the take-home points from the readings?

Due by the class on 9/17

Read Barthes “Rhetoric of the Image” posted on Canvas. Then, blog about it.

-In one paragraph, reflect on the following: What is being argued in the essay? What are the main points regarding the central argument?

-Then, in a few sentences to one paragraph, reflect on the ways in which any part of the reading resonated with you–given your life observations within your personal, social, academic, or professional lives. You may also add some media (an image, a video, etc) that illustrate any of the points from the readings and explain how this media are linked to the reading.

*We will have discussion/activities on the reading during our class on 9/17.

Due by 11:59 PM on 9/11

On Thursday, September 10^th, we’re going to have a field trip to Longwood Center for the Visual Arts. Our LCVA meeting will begin promptly at 11:15 AM – be there on time!

What you will need to bring to this trip: your punctual self, an electronic device that can take photos (and notes, if you want to), a pen/pencil + notepad (if you want to take handwritten notes). I tell you what to do with those in your upcoming blogging prompts.

Once our LCVA meeting begins, the Center representatives will introduce the LCVA and let the you know how you can be involved in the LCVA- volunteering, attending events, opening receptions, etc… And then we’ll tour the work on our own. Once you finish the tour and select your art works, please blog about the following in a separate posting in your own blog.

During the LCVA trip, view and select (at least two) certain art pieces to reflect on. Then, with those examples of visual art in mind, make a claim in response the question: To what extent is visual art rhetorical? At least in one paragraph, support your claim with your general thoughts/reflections about it and in light of the articles we have read for the class so far. Specifically cite the authors whose ideas might guide your perspectives (whether you agree or disagree with them or you’re just using their points to enhance your reflections).

Then, in another section (at least one paragraph), analyze the visual art pieces of your choice: provide details from the works to comment on the extent to which they are rhetorical or not.

*If you were allowed for educational purposes, post a photo of the pieces you have analyzed. In any case, you have to identify the painter and the title of the painting to inform us as well as to give proper credit.

Due by the class on 9/8

Respond to the following based on the readings due for our class on 9/8. There is no length requirement, but make sure your responses are actually addressing the prompts (which might require at least a few sentences for each).

Phillips and McQuarrie:

-What is a visual metaphor?

-What is typology?

-What does a rhetorical approach to advertisement help us accomplish?

Kenney:

-What are some of the lenses that can be used to adopt a rhetorical approach to visual communication?

-What are some of the major terms and concepts that Kenney addresses to aid us study visuals from a rhetorical perspective?

Once you answer the questions, pick one concept from your discussion, and then locate at least one poster/print ad or a TV commercial that represents this concept. Explain how the concept operates in your selected ad (or ads)—for an example, see how Phillips and McQuarrie explain the rhetoric of certain ads in their article.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Creative Commons image posted on Flickr by ING Group

Due by the class on 9/3

Read the two pieces by Edmundson — posted on Canvas and listed in the course schedule.

-In your personal blog, create a new post where you reflect on the readings.  Do you agree with Edmundson’s views? What’s your idea of an “ideal English major” (or communications/humanities major)? What are your views about the Humanities today and in the future?

*We will discuss these readings during our class on 9/3.