Unit VII Assignment II

ANALYZING VISUAL RHETORIC: MAPS, PHOTOGRAPHS, TABLES OR CHARTS, AND GRAPHS

Thus far, we have focused on the ways an image can enhance an argument by creating a sense of immediacy (the day-to-day lives of children), urgency (children we see every day may experience the stress of going hungry), and importance (we need to prevent child hunger). An image sparks our imagination, evokes memories, and in many cases adds a human dimension to a problem that in the abstract may not seem to affect us very much. But visualizing the physical challenges that some people face in ascending the stairs to get to a subway platform or the neglect we see when young people face hunger can change the way we feel. We can be more empathic and identify with others. Thus it is important as you write to consider the purpose of what you are trying to accomplish and to use all of the means of persuasion available to you in constructing an argument that moves readers to understand a problem, grasp its immediacy, reframe how they see the world, and perhaps act with a sense of conviction to change the world for the better.

In this section, then, we extend our conversation of integrating images and text to other visuals that can help you support your argument. As always, your purpose, audience, and context are central to the ways you develop an argument. After all, how you establish an argument depends on which conversation you want to enter, who is part of the conversation, and what you want to accomplish. An image of children may be an effective means of conveying a sense of urgency to readers about hunger in America, but using a map can demonstrate to readers where in the United States there is the greatest concentration of children living in poverty and facing the consequences of food insecurity — not knowing when they will get their next meal. A map can offer a different kind of visual representation of a problem that people need to know about or that policy makers need to solve. It can tell a story of where food insecurity exists, how prevalent it is, and perhaps how food insecurity correlates with other problems in different regions of the country, including lack of employment opportunities and residential segregation among different racial and ethnic groups. With numerical data in the form of tables and graphs, you can create a powerful narrative that conveys the sense of immediacy, urgency, and importance that we have described in analyzing an advertisement. Using all of these tools is also what we mean by using the resources available to you — that is, all of the available means of persuasion. At the same time, you’ll want to consider the best way to communicate your ideas to make an effective argument.

In the readings that follow, consider the following: the author’s purpose, how the author uses maps and other images to frame an argument; what the author assumes about readers’ knowledge and values; the source of the data; whether the use of visuals helps establish the importance, urgency, and immediacy of the problem the author identifies; and the extent to which the author integrates visuals into the written argument. These are concerns that you should focus on in reading and interpreting any kind of image, whether it’s a map, photograph, table, or graph.

◼ Using Maps to Make a Point

Let’s now look at a specific use of a map in a 2015 article from the Washington Post that examines the relationship between poverty and access to public education. In this case, you might ask if the two maps serve the author well in advancing her purpose or whether she could have represented the problem she identifies in another, perhaps more effective way.

EMILY BADGER

Mapped: The Places Where Most Public School Children Are Poor

Formerly a staff writer at The Atlantic Cities, Emily Badger is a regular contributor to the Washington Post and writes about politics, race, and urban neighborhoods.

The first paragraph reads, “Earlier this year, the Southern Education Foundation reported that America’s public schools had reached a dispiriting milestone: A majority of children attending them are now low-income. As the Post’s Lyndsey Layton noted at the time, we haven’t seen such demographics in public schools at any point over the past half-century. And they mean that teachers must increasingly prioritize combating the effects of poverty — ensuring children feel safe, fed and well-clothed — before the learning even begins.”

The annotation marking the sentences, “Earlier this year, the Southern Education Foundation reported that America’s public schools had reached a dispiriting milestone: A majority of children attending them are now low-income” reads, “Identifies a problem that educators have never faced before.”

The second paragraph reads, “This picture of poverty in the classroom, however, varies widely across the country, between North and South, and between urban counties and nearby suburban ones. The Urban Institute on Wednesday released interactive maps showing that the concentration of poor children in public schools is remarkably high in some of these places relative to others — and that these geographic disparities are magnified for children of color.”

The annotation marking this paragraph reads, “Identifies the source of data in the map that frames the argument and introduces the idea that poverty affects children of color more than others.”

The third paragraph reads, “The above map shows the share of children in public schools in each county who come from low-income families (low-income is defined here as households making at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty line, the cutoff for free and reduced-price lunch programs). Particularly striking is the “belt of rural poverty” across the South, as the Urban Institute puts it.”

The annotation marking the words, “public schools in each county who come from low-income families (low-income is defined here as households making at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty” reads, “Integrates reference to the map into the argument.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “The share of low-income children is also high in several metropolitan areas: in Dallas County (73 percent), in Cook County around Chicago (66 percent), in the District of Columbia (61 percent). In several Lakota counties in South Dakota, the number of public school children who come from low-income families approaches 100 percent.”

The annotation marking this paragraph reads, “Offers more specific data that the map does not fully present in its emphasis on high-poverty, areas marked in dark blue. Note the way the author uses color-coded key for identifying low- and high-poverty families.”

The fifth paragraph reads, “This concentration of poverty, which reflects underlying patterns in where the rich and poor live, also means that a poor child in America is much more likely than a middle-class or wealthier child to attend a high-poverty school. About 40 percent of low-income children attend public schools where 75 percent of the other students are low-income, too. The same is true of just 6 percent of non-poor kids. “This is concentrated disadvantage,” writes Urban Institute”

The annotation marking the sentences, “underlying patterns in where the rich and poor live, also means that a poor child in America is much more likely than a middle-class or wealthier child to attend a high-poverty school. About 40 percent of low-income children attend public schools where 75 percent of the other students are low-income, too. The same is true of just 6 percent of non-poor kids. “This is concentrated disadvantage,” writes Urban Institute” reads, “Amplifies the argument with statistical data from a reliable source and establishes the importance, urgency, and immediacy of the patterns she identifies.”

The first paragraph reads, “researcher Reed Jordan, “the children who need the most are concentrated in schools least likely to have the resources to meet those needs.”

The second paragraph reads, “Across the country, black children are also about six times more likely to attend high-poverty schools than white children. In many counties in the rural

South, nearly all of the black children attend high poverty schools:”

The annotation marking this paragraph reads, “Leads up to a key point that frames the way readers will look at the map that follows.”

The third paragraph reads, “Disparities in the level of school poverty that white and black children experience often vary as well within the same region. Jordan again: In some metropolitan areas, the racial concentration of school poverty is so severe that black and white students effectively attend two different school systems: one for middle- and upper-middle-income white students, and the other for poor students and students of color.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “This happens, for example, in Cook County around Chicago. There, 75 percent of black students attend high-poverty schools. For white children, the share is less than 10 percent.”

The fifth paragraph reads, “These maps reflect the importance of better integrating schools, creating environments in which poor children learn alongside upper-income peers. But that’s a goal that will be hard to achieve if we don’t talk as well about the housing patterns and policies that helped create these maps.”

The annotation marking this paragraph reads, “Reaffirms the value of the maps as a way to visualize the problem and create goals that might inform policy.”

“Share of Black Children in High-Poverty Schools,” originally from Reed Jordan, “A Closer Look at Income and Race Concentration in Public Schools,” Urban Institute, May 13, 2015,

◼ Using Photographs to Provide Context or Stir Emotions

Of all visuals that appear in multimodal texts, photographs might be the most common. They can serve a wide range of functions in the text and are frequently used to provide context or encourage a particular emotional response — or both. Take online news articles, for example. Most of them, regardless of the topic, include a visual. If the article discusses a statement made by a politician, a photo of the politician usually appears with the writing. This photo provides a visual context for the writer’s subject — the politician — but rarely does it capture the exact moment in which the politician made the statement being discussed. The text will usually include a photo that instead reveals something about how the writer wants the politician to be perceived. If the writer questions the validity of the politician’s statement, the chosen photo may show the politician wearing a combative or smug expression, for example. These kinds of photos are usually not the subject of overt discussion, but they do connect to the subject and influence most readers’ perceptions of the text.

Sometimes photos are at the center of a writer’s text. For example, a writer questioning whether the 2017 Women’s March in Washington, DC, was inclusive might analyze a photo of the crowd that seems to capture the prevailing mix of genders, races, and ages of the participants. Or in covering the blight of foreclosed, uninhabited homes in low-income neighborhoods in Chicago, a writer might include a photo of one such boarded-up house to characterize the problem and the neighborhood and maybe generate compassion for those living in adjacent properties.

When you encounter photographs in your reading, we encourage you to analyze the photograph by reflecting on your own emotional response to what is depicted and any memories that the photograph helps spark. To what extent does it reflect a world that you know or help reframe what you know and have experienced? What purpose does the photograph serve in the text? That is, what story does the photograph help the author tell? How effective is it in establishing a sense of importance, immediacy, and urgency?

◼ Using Tables to Capture the Issue and Present Findings

We now turn to the ways writers use tables as a formal structure to help readers understand the kinds of patterns that complex data represent. Tables tend to be used to present statistics and serve as a starting point for analysis and discussion. You will see that it is a good rule of thumb to summarize and highlight key points in the text you write rather than try to include all of the information that you will include in a table. It’s also important to explain what you think readers should pay attention to in a table and offer some context. Don’t just include a table without explanation.

In what follows, we provide an excerpt from a 2001 article in which researchers Susan B. Neuman and Donna Celano examine the educational resources that children and their families have access to in two low-income neighborhoods and two middle-class neighborhoods. The excerpt we include describes the methods the researchers used to collect data and some of the results they found. We limit our discussion of results to the quantity and quality of literacy resources available to children.

We encourage you to analyze the way the authors choose to visually represent their findings alongside their discussion of the availability of reading materials for adolescents and adults, where they found these resources, and the differences between quantity and quality of resources in low- and high-income neighborhoods. How effective is their use of tables in establishing a sense of importance, immediacy, and urgency? How do the tables help the authors fulfill their purpose? What story do they tell? And finally, note how the authors have designed the table and used labels to identify the information provided in a given table. Is the information clear? Do the authors integrate the discussion of what is in the tables into the text?

SUSAN B. NEUMAN AND DONNA CELANO

Access to Print in Low-Income and Middle-Income Communities: An Ecological Study of Four Neighborhoods

A former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education, Dr. Susan B. Neuman is an educator, researcher, and education policy-maker in early childhood and literacy development. Now a professor of education at the University of Michigan, she is director of the Michigan Research Program on Ready to Learn. She has published widely, including her most recent book with Professor Donna Celano, Giving Our Children a Fighting Chance. Dr. Celano is a faculty member in the Communication Department at La Salle University, Philadelphia, and has published in Reading Research Quarterly, Phi Delta Kappan, Education Week, and Educational Leadership.

A text reads, “Our multicultural research team included a project investigator, a project coordinator, and six applied urban anthropology doctoral students. Together, we devised a research strategy to examine literacy resources and opportunities in each community. This strategy recognized that any one variable, or…”

The first paragraph reads, “The first paragraph reads, “Our multicultural research team included a project investigator, a project coordinator, and six applied urban anthropology doctoral students. Together, we devised a research strategy to examine literacy resources and opportunities in each community. This strategy recognized that any one variable, or measure in and of itself, could not explain variations in print access and opportunity. Rather, we hypothesized that each measure operated within a web of relationships, acting simultaneously and in ways that intersected with one another. Initial data collection and analysis were followed by additional data collection and analysis throughout the year.”

The annotation marking this paragraph reads, “States the purpose of their study: to identify literacy resources and opportunities from different perspectives (not defined by any one variable or place). The discussion of methods provides some context for analyzing how the authors examine the amount and kinds of literacy materials available in low-income and middle-income neighborhoods.”

The second paragraph reads, “The research team devised a theory of community influences that might have an impact on children’s early literacy development (Connell, Kubisch, Schorr, & Weiss, 1995). On the basis of accumulated evidence from early literacy research, the theory implies that children learn about literacy through contact, experiences, and observations of written language use in their everyday lives (Goodman, 1986; Neuman & Roskos, 1997; Teale & Sulzby, 1989). Children construct an understanding of how print works through their independent explorations of print and signs, interactions around books and other print resources, and participation with others engaged in purposeful literacy activities. Accordingly, community access was operationally defined as (a) the quantity and selection of children’s books that parents could conceivably purchase in the neighborhood, (b) the environmental print (signs, labels, and logos) in the business area that children might begin to identify, (c) the public areas where children might observe people reading, (d) the quantity and quality of books in the child-care centers they would most likely attend, (e) the quantity and quality of books in the local elementary school libraries, and (f) the collections in the local public library. Although each of these influences most likely plays some role, together they might play a powerful role in children’s development as literacy learners.”

The annotation marking the words “Children construct an understanding of how print works through their independent explorations of print and signs, interactions around books and other print resources, and participation with others engaged in purposeful literacy activities. Accordingly, community access was operationally defined as (a) the quantity and selection” reads, “Identifies why the research team looked at the specific factors that influence how children learn.”

The third paragraph reads, “Survey of reading materials. Using the census boundaries, research assistants walked each block throughout a neighborhood, stopping at every store (i.e., bookstore, grocery store, bodega) likely to have reading resources for purchase: newspapers, magazines, children’s books, and teen and adult books. Total number of titles, descriptions of the types of materials,”

The annotation marking this paragraph reads, “The authors describe the kinds of reading materials that children in low-income and middle-income neighborhoods have access to.”

The first paragraph reads, “and age distribution for the materials were placed on a spreadsheet. To the degree possible, we also counted newspaper boxes, honor boxes, and newspaper stands by type of newspapers. For the purposes of this study, information on children’s resources was then plotted on maps to provide information on proximity to resources across the neighborhood. . . .”

The second paragraph reads, “Books in child-care centers. Because increasing numbers of children spend most of their day not around their neighborhood, but in child-care centers within the area in which they live (Children’s Defense Fund, 1999), our next step was to focus on access to books in childcare centers. Considering that independent access to books is likely to be particularly important for 3- and 4-year-old children, we randomly selected two classrooms in six not-forprofit child-care centers in each neighborhood (i.e., 48 classrooms). For the purposes of this study, only two areas of the literacy environment were examined. Children’s book displays were rated for availability, according to a scale of 1 (no books accessible to children) to 7 (books available in library corner and other interest areas around the room). Quality was rated from 1 (no attractive books displayed) to 7 (variety of genre and a wide range of age-appropriate selections).”

The annotation marking the sentences, ““Books in child-care centers. Because increasing numbers of children spend most of their day not around their neighborhood, but in child-care centers within the area in which they live (Children’s Defense Fund, 1999), our next step was to focus on access to books in childcare centers” reads, “The authors explain where these different kinds of reading materials are accessible — if they are accessible at all.”

The third paragraph reads, “School libraries. We next visited the local school libraries. Many young children were likely to attend prekindergarten and kindergarten in elementary schools and later go on to the middle schools in the neighborhood. We concentrated on public schools, but included several parochial and private ones if they seemed to draw large numbers of children from the local area. Visiting a total of 24 schools, we examined (a) their resources (i.e., number and condition of available books — book count was estimated by multiplying the number of books on a shelf times the number of shelves, and condition was estimated by publication date and condition of the cover on a random selection of books); (b) staffing (i.e., librarian’s training and years of work experience); and (c) children’s access (i.e., number of days the library”

The first two paragraphs read, “was open per week, and whether children could visit independently or needed to go at designated times). Differences in quantity and quality of books and book access were then compared across communities. Public libraries. Our final analysis focused on the public library branches in each neighborhood. We limited our analysis to the size of the collection, average number of books per child and adult in the catchment area, and hours of library service for each branch.”

The third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs are under the title “Results”

The third paragraph reads, “Results of the data were consistent. There were minor differences in access to print between neighborhoods of similar income, but major and striking differences at almost all levels between neighborhoods of different income. These data indicate that children from middle-income neighborhoods were likely to be deluged with a wide variety of reading materials. However, children from poor neighborhoods would have to aggressively and persistently seek them out. . . .”

The annotation marking the sentences, “Results of the data were consistent. There were minor differences in access to print between neighborhoods of similar income, but major and striking differences at almost all levels between neighborhoods of different income. These data indicate that children from middle-income neighborhoods were likely to be deluged with a wide variety of reading materials” reads, “The authors highlight 7 the extent to which middle-class families have far more access to reading materials than do low-income families and their children.”

The fourth paragraph reads, “Survey of print resources. Table 2 describes the number of stores in each area that carried children’s books and magazines. In Chestnut Hill and Roxborough, 11 and 13 places respectively sold print materials for children. There were seven bookstores with special sections for children in Chestnut Hill and three bookstores, with a large children’s selection in one, in Roxborough. In contrast, Kingsessing and Kensington, with a far greater density of children, had 4 places in each community that carried children’s print materials. No bookstores were found in either neighborhood.”

The annotation marking this paragraph reads, “A summary of what the authors found in the four neighborhoods listed at the top in Table 2. On the left side of the table is a list of what the authors examined and which they described earlier in their method for collecting data. Use of a table helps the authors selectively discuss the data presented and emphasize the clear differences in access between low- and middle-class families.”

The fifth paragraph reads, “As shown in Table 2, drugstores were the most common source of print materials for children. Young adult materials, defined as chapter books, or magazines more suitable to middle-grade children in all areas were scarce. Apart from the bookstores and a couple of convenience stores in the middle-income areas, these materials were largely absent in any business establishment.”

The annotation marking this paragraph reads, “Note that the researchers underscore what they want readers to understand from the table. They stress the “scarcity” of materials they think all children should have access to.”

The text on the page reads, “Looking more closely in each area, Tables 3a through 3d describe an even more disturbing picture and equation. To provide some evidence of choice (not quality), we counted the number of different children’s titles in each store. Detailing the type of store, number of children’s titles, and general type of reading material (e.g., magazines, books, comics), massive differences were reported in print access across community — not only in number, but in type of materials available. Children in Chestnut Hill, for example, had access to literally thousands of book, magazine, and comic-book titles. Roxborough children, though with access to far fewer, still had substantial numbers of book titles to choose from, whereas children in Kensington had only hundreds and in Kingsessing even fewer. No young adult titles were available in either of the two lower-income neighborhoods.

These data indicate that the equation was dramatically skewed in favor of children from middle-income communities. There were about 13 titles for every 1 child in Chestnut Hill, and 1 book title for about every 3 children in Roxborough. Compare this situation with the low-income communities: There was 1 title for about every 20 children in Kensington and 1, all of which were coloring book titles, for about every 300 children in Kingsessing. Consequently, even though living in the same city, children’s access to print resources was widely differential. In these low-income neighborhoods, children would find it difficult, if not impossible, to purchase a book of any quality in local stores; in the middle income neighborhoods, children would find it hard to escape them. Such differential access might account for differential print exposure as recorded in research by Stanovich and his colleagues (Stanovich © Cunningham, 1993; Stanovich © West, 1989).”

The corresponding annotation for the marked text “Looking more closely in each area, Tables 3a through 3d describe an even more disturbing picture and equation. To provide some evidence of choice (not quality), we counted the number of different children’s titles in each store. Detailing the type of store, number of children’s titles, and general type of reading material (e.g., magazines, books, comics), massive” reads, “Four additional tables further analyze data presented in the summary table. The authors integrate the tables by discussing findings in the text, while offering readers the argument they make about this ‘disturbing picture.’”

The corresponding annotation for the marked text “These data indicate that the equation was dramatically skewed in favor of children from middle-income communities. There were about 13 titles for every 1 child in Chestnut Hill, and 1 book title for about every 3 children in Roxborough. Compare this situation with the low-income communities” reads, “The authors summarize what we find in Tables 3a, b, c, and d. Again, the researchers can be selective in what they write about so as not to overwhelm readers because all of the data appears in the tables they provide.”

Table 2 Number of Places Selling Children’s Reading Resources
STORES	KENSINGTON	KINGSESSING	ROXBOROUGH	CHESTNUTHILL
Children’s resources
Bookstores	0	0	1	3
Drugstores	2	1	5	2
Grocery stores	0	1	3	1
Bargain stores	1	1	2	0
Corner stores	1	0	0	0
Other stores	0	1	1	1
Children’s stores	0	0	1	4
Total	4	4	13	11
Young adult
Bookstores	0	0	1	1
Drugstores	0	0	1	0
Grocery stores	0	0	0	0
Bargain stores	0	0	0	0
Corner stores	0	0	0	0
Other stores	0	0	1	0
Total	0	0	3	1

Table 3a Reading Resources in Kensington
STORE NAME	TYPE	CHILDREN’STITLES	YOUNG ADULTTITLES	TYPE
Rite Aid	Drugstore	112	0	Book/magazines (picture, puzzle, comics, activity)
Rite Aid	Drugstore	142	0	Book/magazines (picture, puzzle, comics, activity)
Chico’s Cut Rate	Bargain store	95	0	Magazines (comics)
Maria’s Candy	Corner store	9	0	Magazines (comics, puzzles)
Total		358	0

Table 3b Reading Resources in Kingsessing
STORE NAME	TYPE	CHILDREN’STITLES	YOUNG ADULTTITLES	TYPE
Pharmacy	Drugstore	15	0	Magazines
Thriftway	Grocery store	5	0	Magazines
Dollar Store	Bargain store	30	0	Books (coloring)
Newstand	Other	5	0	Magazines
Total		55	0

Table 3c Reading Resources in Roxborough
STORE NAME	TYPE	CHILDREN’STITLES	YOUNGADULTTITLES	TYPE
Encore Books	Bookstore	1,000	500	Books
CVS	Drugstore	18	0	Books
Rite Aid	Drugstore	34	0	Books/magazines
Eckerd	Drugstore	69	0	Books
Eckerd	Drugstore	55	0	Books/magazines (coloring/activity, easy crossword)
CVS	Drugstore	27	30	Books (picture, coloring/activity, popular teen fiction)
Superfresh	Grocery store	20	0	Books (Golden books, coloring/activity)
Superfresh	Grocery store	27	0	Books/magazines (Disney, Read & Listen, coloring/activity, comics)
Acme	Grocery store	14	0	Books (bargain)
Dollar Store	Bargain store	35	0	Books (toddler, picture, coloring)
Dollar Store	Bargain store	31	0	Books/magazines (picture, activity, Disney, comics)
World Wide Aquarium	Other store	30	0	Books (“family style” books about pets)
Family Toy Warehouse	Children’s store	237	30	Books (toddler, picture, workbooks, Golden books, coloring/activity)
Total		1597	560

Table 3d Reading Resources in Chestnut Hill
STORE NAME	TYPE	CHILDREN’STITLES	YOUNG ADULTTITLES	TYPE
Borders	Bookstore	14,000	Unspecified	Books
Christian Literature Crusade	Bookstore	640	0	Books (toddler, picture, coloring)
Philadelphia Print Shop	Bookstore	1	0	Books (coloring)
CVS	Drugstore	7	0	Books (coloring)
Eckerd	Drugstore	34	0	Books (toddler, workbooks, coloring/activity)
Superfresh	Grocery store	6	0	Books/magazines
Chris’s Store	Children’s store	10	0	Unspecified
Benders	Children’s store	1,000	0	Unspecified
O’Doodles	Children’s store	115	0	Books (toddler, picture, educational coloring, family style art)
Mes Enfants	Toy store	120	0	Books (toddler, picture)
Performing Art Store	Other	520	0	Books (scripts, scores, toddler, stories, multicultural, dance, biography)
Total		16,453	0

Tables: Republished with permission from John Wiley & Sons, Inc., from “Access to Print in Low-Income and Middle-Income Communities: An Ecological Study of Four Neighborhoods,” by Susan B. Neuman and Donna Celano, Reading Research Quarterly 36.1 (January/February/March 2001), pp. 8–26; permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

◼ Using Graphs to Present Findings

One final way of presenting data is to use a graph, as Neuman and Celano do to provide a quick summary that gives readers a snapshot of key findings. They use a bar graph, but you can also use pie charts, scatter plots, and line graphs to emphasize patterns and trends.

The graph plots book availability and book quality on the horizontal axis and Average score from 0 to 7 on the vertical axis.

The data for the graph is as follows:

Book availability: For low-income students, average score - 3.7; for middle-income students, average score – 4.7.

Book quality: For low-income students, average score – 4; for middle-income students, average score – 7.5.

FIGURE 10.5Book Availability and Book Quality in Preschool Classrooms

Interestingly, Neuman and Celano use tables more frequently to summarize the differences between the types and quantity of literacy resources that low- and middle-income families have access to. Some of the results they present are quite dramatic, especially when we become aware of the tens of thousands of titles in middle-income neighborhoods and the scarcity of books in low-income neighborhoods. They could have easily compiled what they found in a graph like the one on page 309. Why do you think they chose to use a table to represent trends but then use a graph to describe the availability of books in preschools? What differences would you call attention to in using a table versus a graph? What effect do these two different kinds of images have on you? To what extent does the purpose for writing determine the choice? To what extent does either one convey importance, immediacy, or urgency better than the other?

Steps to Using Visuals in Writing an Argument

1. Identify. Consider what you want to accomplish — your purpose — in using a visual or a series of visuals. What is the story you want to tell? Are you reframing readers’ experiences, sparking their imagination, presenting data, or motivating readers to act?

2. Analyze. Conduct some research to understand an audience’s values and knowledge base. How might readers respond to your choice of visuals?

3. Evaluate. Assess the extent to which a visual will add clarity or create a sense of importance, urgency, and immediacy.

4. Question. Examine the source of the data in a map, photograph, table, or graph. Are the data accurate or biased in any way? Does the source of data reveal anything?

5. Integrate. Discuss and analyze any visuals you include. Be sure that readers understand the relationship between the text you write and the image(s) you present. What conclusions can readers draw from your maps, photographs, tables, or graphs?

A Practice Sequence: Using Visuals to Enhance an Argument

1. With your own writing in mind, write down how you would follow the steps for integrating visuals in a written argument.

· Identify your purpose. What is the story you want to tell?

· Analyze your audience’s values and knowledge base to determine how they might react to different kinds of media.

· Evaluate which kind of visuals will provide support or clarity or create a sense of importance, urgency, and immediacy.

· Question the source of the data you want to use. Does the source of data reveal anything?

· Integrate the text you have written and the visual(s) you include. What conclusions can readers draw from your discussion of visuals?

2. As a class or in small groups, discuss the strategies that authors use to integrate visuals and discussion in the readings in this section.

· When does using a map make sense? What about a photograph, table, or graph?

· Are there instances when the authors might have combined strategies to fulfill their purpose as writers?

· What are some best practices for integrating visuals that help readers understand the importance, immediacy, and urgency of an argument?

3. Analyze the following editorial as a class or in small groups. The writer collaborated with three other students in an effort to prevent a library from closing in the city where they live and attend a school. The authors were limited to just 700 words and could not include visuals to amplify their argument.

· To what extent could a map have helped readers understand the resources that children and families have access to?

· What would including a photograph add to the story the students wanted to tell?

· Could the writers have added a table with census data or even a graph to advance their argument? Why or why not?