How do I see information being understood by my audience?
Well, it depends on the information and the presentation. It also
depends on the audience. In other words, the subject matters so does the
arrangement and delivery. All of these are shaped by the audience.
Mode and medium matters as well. I find this question, therefore,
to entirely depend on the rhetorical situation and all the rhetorical decisions
made in response.
How do I approach the invention portion of my projects?
I think first of my rhetorical goals--often, as a teacher, my pedagogical
goals. I am also swayed by my intuitive sense of design--what font,
layout, look is appropriate for my rhetorical goals. I don't do this
analytically necessarily. Sometimes I decide to add visuals for secondary
reasons rather than primary rhetorical reasons. I might decide to add a
cartoon to a worksheet not because it meets a pedagogical goal, but because it
is "fun". I guess this is a decision based somewhat on pathos
rather than logos. But, yes, these design decisions also have much to do
with ethos--who I am as teacher, as a professional, and my relationship with my
audience.
What relationship do I seem between the visual and other
modes? I guess a good analogy would be sensory experience. Our days
are spent with a moment by moment influx of sensory stimulus. We see,
hear, smell, and perceive textures, temperatures, and bodily signals of all
types. Some of these are more salient than others at most points in time,
but all are present most of the time. Naturally, human beings will use as
combinations of these to communicate--sometimes in an intentionally selective
way, at other times in a more global and comprehensive way. Of course,
technology, too, plays a role. Simpler technologies make only one or two
modes available. More complex or sophisticated technologies may make others
available. Nevertheless, smell and taste are still rarely available
outside of direct experience. Performance
art, for example, might be capable of using these modes, but technology isn’t
yet able to transmit these sensory experiences over distance. In terms of
rhetorical analysis or research projects, I think it is appropriate to investigate
one or another mode selectively even when multiple modes are at play, depending
on one's research question. However, we always must recognize that
inevitably multiple modes are in operation at any point in time.
