Category Archives: English 350: Visible Rhetoric

Work on my portfolio proposal is going very slowly, so I’ve been concentrating on a related paper for another class. I decided to apply to present that paper at the New Directions Conference next year, so I worked up an abstract to submit. I’m really hoping that having that abstract in hand will provide a little inspiration for my other projects! The abstract is as follows:

The experience of pregnancy has changed in modern times, and one of the biggest changes is the advent of fetal ultrasound. Expectant parents look forward to the ultrasound as confirmation of a pregnancy and a chance to “meet” their child. The purpose of fetal ultrasound has undergone a massive shift; it was once used sparingly as a detector of fetal abnormality and now is most often considered a social event. Almost all modern women in the United States have at least one ultrasound scan over the course of carrying a baby – but therein lies a fundamental problem. This paper will examine the reasons women choose to have those scans, and it will further posit that popular and medical rhetoric does not adequately inform women about the potential effects of fetal ultrasound, and thus influences them to have the scans. I will analyze the situation via several different analytic approaches: the societal perception of fetal ultrasound, the messages of media targeting pregnant women, physicians’ rhetoric to pregnant patients, the patriarchal tendency to support the use of fetal ultrasound, women’s reasons for consenting to fetal ultrasound, and, finally, the ethical implications of the intersections in these areas. Those intersections may also be complicated more by the application of feminist and rhetorical theories. Although this paper is not yet complete, I expect to conclude with a number of ways in which the medical community could be more transparent and ethical in its presentation of fetal ultrasound to potential users.

Framing is really all about creating context, and I enjoyed the parts in Graphic Design that pointed out how often we use those contexts every day without even realizing it. One piece of example work, in fact, was made up entirely of the frames we constantly use on computer screens (pg. 100). The text you’re reading here is framed – at least – by the computer screen, the window you have pulled up with your Internet brower, and the design of this web site.

A grid, as described in Thinking with Type, is basically a network of related frames. Any sort of grid divides a given space – which is likely a frame itself – into a network of smaller frames within which a designer will then work.

I also enjoyed thinking about the different ways gridding and framing can work. In TT, Lupton discussed how typography can be a frame. “Typography is a form designed to melt away as it yields itself to content” (115). This observation goes back to the most basic principle of design: Good design is invisible. The most effective frame is one that viewers don’t even notice. (Of course, this changes if the frame is actually the subject of a piece — but, in that case, the frame is performaing an additional function besides framing that supersedes framing.) If a non-designer viewer stops to notice a frame when attention should be directed inside the frame, that’s an error. (Have you ever noticed the frame on the Mona Lisa? Didn’t think so.) Framing, then, is the beginning of design. It has to occur first, and the rest of the piece will flow into and around it.

I’m really struggling with my final project for this class. (For anyone reading who’s not in the know, I’m writing a proposal for my master’s portfolio.) I’ve always suffered from a general lack of direction in terms of career. I never wanted to pick an undergraduate major, and I still stutter around quite a bit when people ask me what I’m going to do with my master’s degree. So, my main dilemma is that I don’t know how much to focus my portfolio. My two major interest areas are medical and visual rhetoric. The biggest paper in my portfolio will be on the visual rhetoric of ultrasound — a neat combination of the two. (Chapter 8 of Practices of Looking is tailor-made to be a source for that paper.)

Thus far, I’ve spent time thinking about the final format of the portfolio as well as what I want its ultimate purpose to be (aside from getting that master’s degree). I hope to use my portfolio — which will take shape as a web site — for the very practical purpose of getting a job I will love. I also want it to be something I can add to so that I can chronicle my academic work in the event that I start work toward a doctoral degree in the future. With the format and purpose decided upon, the content is making me draw a big blank. Right now, I’m thinking I’ll create sections within the portfolio — maybe something like “Visible Rhetoric,” “Medical Rhetoric,” “Journalism,” and “Other Professional Writing Projects.” I also think I’d like to include a section about my teaching experience, minimal though it is. Something like this might be ideal.

Suggestions, anyone?

In my opinion, Chapter 9 in Practices of Looking encompassed way too much material. There’s so much to talk about, and just not enough time to do it in the space of a single chapter.

The thing I most like about graphic design – besides the fact that it’s just cool – is that it’s really all about mastery of the basics.

Lupton and Phillips seem to note this even with the title of their text: “Graphic Design: The New Basics.” The sections on hierarchy, layers, transparency, modularity, grids and patterns confirm this. I have dealt extensively with all these elements in my short career – and I am by no means an expert designer. Yet my boss, a designer with 40+ years experience, bases his work on the same principles. (The one that most comes to mind is the grid. He uses a grid format, with story packages in modules, every day – but he can do things within that grid I can’t – and, yet, the finished product is always immediately identifiable as our particular newspaper. So, I can really see how the grid can “encourage the designer to vary the scale and placement of elements without relying wholly on arbitrary or whimsical judgments” (175).)

While all the principles mentioned above are important, hierarchy stands out to me as the most important. Hierarchy goes far beyond the aesthetic, and often the consumer of a designer’s material may not realize the designer has chosen what the reader’s eye will see and when. Thus, hierarchy imbues design work with a serious sense of responsibility. (That’s not to say those other elements don’t; it’s just that they all are subservient to where they are placed in the hierarchy of a piece.)

Take, for example, rollover ads. Blogger Stephen Baker notes in this entry that such ads can be pretty unethical. He’s right; these are the ads that expand into the space where you just clicked, and suddenly you’re heading to a site you never wanted to see and downloading cookies you never wanted contact with. This morning, I visited the Peoria Journal Star’s Web site and was confronted with one of these rollover ads. (It’s already been removed or I’d post a link. The paper’s site is pjstar.com.) While I understand that the rollover ad might be effective, the Web page designer at least has a responsibility to not let such an ad take up residence right on the front page, at the top, where most people will certainly be clicking on the headlines listed in the space the ad will expand into. (In this particular case, the designer’s ethical duty may include working with an ad representative or even the advertising client to find an alternative solution.)