In addition to taking the Visual Rhetoric class this semester, I’m also currently enrolled in Dr. Siegfried’s Shakespeare class. Before we’ve even begun to really delve into the plays, we’ve had to establish a number of rubrics under which we’re going to operate. One of these discusses the interconnectedness of Truth and Beauty, meaning analyzing how communication of Truth is made possible through Beauty; you can be speaking absolute Truth, but if it isn’t made beautiful, it will not captivate and inspire an audience toward action. A similar principle is discussed in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried. Despite being a Vietnam War veteran, O’Brien states multiple times in his book that not all (if any) of the anecdotes recounted are “true life events”. However, he writes the stories he does to communicate the Truth of war rather than the true events because he wants to dispel the glorification of war that has become so rampant in the American consciousness. By imbuing his stories with the “beauty” of the true horror of war rather than pandering to the expectation of patriotism and nationalism, the real Truth of the matter is revealed.
Academic writing is incredibly dull. The only people that enjoying reading academic writing are academics. To communicate with as large an audience as possible, the elevated concepts and ideas that characterize academia have to be infused with the Beauty of both the vernacular and rhetorical aesthetics. A person could have come up with a theory to explain the origins of the universe, but if presented in a paper that is unpolished and sloppily designed, even the sheer brilliance and truth of the theory can’t save it from being heavily scrutinized and discredited. Because we are such a visual species, it is imperative that a design/document be carefully designed in addition to factually sound and accurate. If something is unattractive, people will either underestimate it or ignore it altogether.
In order to persuade audiences as effectively as possible, English majors have to do much more than simply write well. Almost anyone can learn to write well. The real persuasion comes into play when an excellent writer is able to present their ideas in documents that are designed with the audience in mind in terms of background knowledge, convenience, and interest level. If you want to get a mass audience hooked on automotive hydraulics, then you don’t present your dissertation in a boring run-of-the-mill essay format that will likely bore the pants off anyone, let alone the general public. To get an audience excited about a topic they wouldn’t ordinarily be interested in, you need awesome writing, attractive and eye-catching (but not overpowering) graphics, and proper design principles (like proximity and hierarchy) to pull everything together and impress an audience with the care you’ve taken to help them become invested in your topic.
No comments:
Post a Comment