Are Visuals in Essays Necessary/Helpful?

In Words are the Ultimate Abstraction, Robert Watkins states, "multimodality and visual rhetoric are emerging genres of which compositionists should take note". True to every extent! More than ever, in our advance technological era, our population is accustomed to visuals, which surround us everywhere through ads, computers, television, and so on. Therefore, permitting visuals in essays or making visual analysis a standard genre of academia becomes necessary.

A picture says a million words, right? As seen with advertisement, one simple picture can persuade us to purchase something or a charismatic image can convince us to follow a certain direction. My point is that visual literacy is yet another form of communication, so it is essential to acquire visual rhetoric skills in order to become an effective communicator....sooooo....the answer to my title is "yes".

Designing a Web Based Writing Course--C. Gouge

What online chats/classes demand is that students write...this is essentially what we want our students to do in writing classes, so from this perspective, chats are healthy writing exercises. Gouge puts it like this: "web based writing courses are uniquely situated to generate more--and more text-based participation".

Pros and Cons:
Pros to online courses: For those whom anxiety is a huge barrier like shy students, online work removes that barrier. For those who need the face to face interaction, we can now utilize pod cast videos to interact.

pros to online courses: it engages every student to practice writing constantly and consistently.


cons to online courses: students who are not tech savvy get lost or behind.


pros to online courses: students learn to think quickly and precisely, a skill especially good for interviewing.


cons to online courses: tough to read tone and non verbal cues..not being able to receive an answer to a question immediatley...


Another con: academic honesty (BIG ONE)...perhaps podcast works for this, confirming academic integrity

TWWC: Blackmon

What about Blackmon's real world becomes the newest "ghettos" when technology is absent...is this possible? I think it is...Blackmon voiced a valid concern regarding technology deprevation (p.96). With all the useful information and the facilitations that technology provides, more and more we become dependant of it. People who don't like or understand technology lose out on the perks and connectedness to the rest of the world. To prove to this point, just think about the job market: a big percentage of companies now days require an online application. If one doesn't associate with computers and e-mailing, the job opportunity is gone. On the other hand, the tech savvy will have a better shot. So, from this sense, the non-technology individual becomes alienated and restricted from advancement, forming communities of technology ghettos.

Blackmon voices an actual possibility.