Rhetorical overview of the article
1. The author feels the article needs to be made to point out that visual text is just as important as any other form of writing.
2a. The intended audience for this article is teachers. He makes several references to the modern day ways of teaching like, "Instead of helping students learn to analyze a situation and determine an appropriate form, given a certain audience and purpose, introducing only topic variation."
2b. To make students the primary audience, he would need to reword the article and make it more of a "call to action" instead of an informative article.
3. I think the niche can be found in the last sentence of the first paragraph, "...texts which display their structure, providing the reader/ viewer with a schematic representation of the divisions and hierarchies which organize the text."
Summary
1. In his article, "Seeing the Text," Bernhardt stresses the advantages of using visual text in your writing. He notes that it can be a much more efficient way to structure your writing, as oppose to not using it, where "one must actually read what is written to get any sense of how one point is related to the next." In the last paragraph, Bernhardt emphasizes that by using visual text "students [can] become able, creative composers."
2. Bernhardt argues that visual text should be taught so that students can have a different way of writing instead of just a different topic.
Burkean Parlor/Intertextuality
I can only think of one other author who has somewhat similar ideas to Bernhardt, and that is McCloud. Both authors encourage students and teachers to use visuals to emphasize their ideas. The only difference is that McCloud actually did what he was preaching, where as Bernhardt stated his ideas in a formal way of writing.
Assigned Exercises
QDJ1: Bernhardt characterizes the typical classroom as consisting of "full, declarative sentences, arranged in paragraphs with low visual identity" (36). Do you struggle with generating or reading this convential, low visual type of writing? Why or why not?
A: I think it is safe to say that everyone struggles with this type of reading from time to time. When you read similar passages over and over again, it becomes difficult to stay focus. Althought Bernhardt's ideas are a bit abstract, they may be able to keep student's attention better than the everyday articles do.
AE4: Look at a website that you visit often. How does it guide you? Do you see any way that the website can be improved to help the viewer interact with the site?
A: I spend a lot of time on Twitter. For the most part it is easy to understand and figure out because all the information send to the site flows vertically along the page. There is one thing I difficult on it, and that is finding other "tweeters." When you click on the search box and type in a name, it goes straight to "tweets referring to the search" instead of "people referring to the search." It actually took me a while to figure out how to find people on it, so I think they should make a separate tab for finding people because after all isn't that what twitter is all about? Finding and interacting with others around the world?
Personal Reflection
1. I think I can apply his visual techniques when brainstorming. I wouldn't want to turn in something that is worth a grade in an outline type of form. I really like his intro paragraph, he points out what occurs in modern day classes, then eventually sneaks his view on how things should be changed into the paragraph.
2. Does Bernhardt really expect students to use his form of visual writing for anything other than brainstorming and outlining their potential papers? I just don't get what else it could be actually used for.
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