“Words or Visuals: Which Speaks Louder?”

by Jennifer Heater | Xchanges 8.2

Conclusion

In this article I have outlined some basic tools of selecting images and have expressed the need to educate technical communicators on visual rhetoric and taking caution when using multimodal documents. Visual semiotics can be a valuable starting tool for any communicator wanting to effectively use multimodal text. Images have a huge impact on the viewer’s perception and the writer’s ethics, and teaching this at the classroom level would be a good start to having a field expectation in creating effective multimodal text.

As we saw in Figure 1, one concern is taking humanity out of a document and misleading the reader on the true impact of an accident. Communicators need to make sure not to shadow any important factors that may be overlooked due to the visual rhetoric. Figure 2 shows the full impact that accidents can have, both to show the cause of the accident and every effect. A communicator has to use caution to pick images that support both the goal of the reader and themselves.

The theories discussed in this article give us possible effects on the perception of the reader and the ethics of the writer. Studying the ways to analyze images before choosing them will ensure that images portray the goals of the article. An image that does not make the reader feel as an equal can affect the way the reader may perceive a document. Underestimating the reader’s perception can serve as a disservice to both the reader and writer.

I believe technical communicators could benefit from receiving basic visual rhetoric practice in the classroom to make them more experienced when making decisions on images inserted within text. Many scholars agree that this is a conflict that needs to be addressed and for which a solution must be found. An unknowledgeable technical communicator could unknowingly change the message of an article with the images chosen. For the benefit of the reader and the ethical security of the writer, visual rhetoric awareness is a plausible solution to ensure unity in the field of technical communication.