Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Conference Presentations
    • PCA/ACA Conference Presentation 2022
    • PCAS/ACAS Presentation 2021
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
    • South Atlantic MLA Conference 2022
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • February 1st: Reflection on Workplace Messages
    • January 11th: More Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Audience & Purpose
    • January 23rd: Résumés and Cover Letters
      • Duty Format for Résumés
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • January 25th: More on Résumés and Cover Letters
    • January 30th: Achieving a Readable Style
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
    • January 9th: Introduction to the Class
    • Major Assignments
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • August 24th: Introduction to the Class
    • August 31st: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2022)
      • Rhetoric of Fear
    • November 16th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals
    • November 2nd: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • November 30th: Words and Word Classes
    • November 9th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • October 12th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • October 19th: Choosing Nominals
    • October 26th: Stylistic Variations
    • October 5th: Midterm Exam
    • September 14th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 21st: Coordination and Subordination
    • September 28th: Form and Function
    • September 7th: Sentence Patterns
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 12th: Knoblauch. Ch. 4 and Ch. 5
    • April 19th: Jacques Derrida’s Positions
    • April 26th:  Feminisms and Rhetorics
    • April 5th: Knoblauch. Ch. 3 and More Constitutive Rhetoric
    • February 15th: Isocrates (Part 2)
    • February 1st: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 & 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 22nd: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
    • February 8th: Isocrates (Part 1)-2nd Half of Class
    • January 11th: Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 25th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 15th: Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method
    • March 1st: Knoblauch. Ch. 1 and 2
    • March 22nd: Mary Wollstonecraft
    • March 29th: Second Wave Feminist Rhetoric
    • May 3rd: Knoblauch. Ch. 6, 7, and “Afterword”
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • ENGL/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear
    • January 10th: Introduction to the Class
    • January 17th: Scapegoats & Conspiracies
    • January 24th: The Rhetoric of Fear and Fallacies Part 1
    • January 31st: Fallacies Part 2 and American Politics Part 1
    • Major Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213-110: Science, Technology, and Society
    • August 22nd: Science and Technology from a Humanistic Perspective
    • August 24th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • August 29th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • August 31st: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • December 5th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • November 14th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 16th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 21st: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 28th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 30th: Violence in Video Games
    • November 7th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes Ch. 1-17
    • November 9th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes, Ch. 18-26
    • October 12th: Lies Economics Tells
    • October 17th: Brief Histories of Medicine, Salerno, and Galen
    • October 19th: Politicizing Science and Medicine
    • October 24th: COVID-19 Facial Covering Rhetoric
    • October 26th: Wells, H. G. Time Machine. Ch. 1-5
    • October 31st: Wells, H. G. The Time Machine Ch. 6-The End
    • October 3rd: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 12th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 19th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Prefaces and Ch. 1
    • September 26th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 2
    • September 28th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • September 7th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 5 and 6
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • April 13th: Virtually ‘Real’ Environments
    • April 20th: Rhetoric/Composition Defines New Media
    • April 27th: Sub/Cultural Politics, Hegemony, and Agency
    • April 6th: Capitalist Realism
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
    • Major Assignments for New Media (Spring 2021)
    • March 16th: Identity Politics
    • March 23rd: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • March 2nd: Foundational Thinkers in Cultural Studies
    • March 30th: Hyperreality
    • March 9th: Globalization & Postmodernism
    • May 4th: Wrapping Up The Semester
      • Jodi Dean “The The Illusion of Democracy” & “Communicative Capitalism”
      • Social Construction of Sexuality
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • A Practical Editing Situation
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire
  • Video Games & American Culture
    • April 14th: Phallocentrism
    • April 21st: Video Games and Neoliberalism
    • April 7th: Video Games and Conquest
    • Assignments for Video Games & American Culture
    • February 10th: Aesthetics and Culture
    • February 17th: Narrative and Catharsis
    • February 24th: Serious Games
    • February 3rd: More History of Video Games
    • January 13th: Introduction to the course
    • January 20th: Introduction to Video Game Studies
    • January 27th: Games & Culture
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
    • March 24th: Realism, Interpretation(s), and Meaning Making
    • March 31st: Feminist Perspectives and Politics
    • March 3rd: Risky Business?

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 255F
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing » October 16th: Type Fever » Typography

Typography

Type fever, type fever
We know how to do it

(da-da-dun, da-da-dun, da-da-dun)
Gimme that type fever, type fever
We know how to show it

(So let’s show it!)


Ethos, Pathos, Logo

Type is probably more of an appeal of ethos, but type may also evoke emotions. Yes, ethos and pathos aren’t either-or when it comes to design. Elements of a design may relate to both. But you need to recognize (and explain) their boundaries. I’m pretty confident there is no appeal of logos in typography.

  • Ethos:
    appeal or presentation of one’s character or credibility; characterization

    • western gear
    • fortune cookie
    • Algerian
  • Pathos:
    appeal to emotions; evoking emotional responses

    • Ford Fairlane
    • Close to Delta Airlines logo typeface from 1945-1962
    • Magneto
    • Happy Days

Some other definitions to consider when distinguishing between ethos, pathos, and logos:

Ethos

  • character: an assumption of one’s moral or ethical nature–good, bad, ugly.
  • credibility: an assumption that an individual or group is fair minded, believeable, trustworthy.
  • characterize: marking an individual, organization, idea, situation, or text (e.g., document) with specific attributes or characteristics.
    • For instance, how might you characterize the Jackass movies?
      • juvenile
      • immaturity
      • gross-out humor
      • extreme stunts
  • look and feel: this is an idiomatic expression we use in American English to refer to the qualities, attributes, characteristics, and textures of an item, person, or text.
    • “Feel” in this phrasing has NOTHING to do with a speaker or document trying to evoke an emotional responses of an audience.

Why does the following have a look and feel of a Greek restaurant?

GreekIslesLogo

Why do the following have a look and feel of a Chinese restaurant?

eggrolls friedrice

What’s improper about including the above three images?

Pathos

  • emotion: sadness, anger, happiness, joy, celebration, etc.
  • affect: response to emotional stimuli.
  • feeling: can refer to emotions but is also used for senses like touch, which has NOTHING to do with a speaker or document trying to evoke an emotional responses of an audience.

Additionally, we sometimes claim “I feel like this is a well-designed proposal,” which doesn’t imply an emotion–it’s an assumption or perspective. An assumption, belief, attitude, or opinion is not the same as an emotion. You might “feel” someone is credible or not, but that has NOTHING to do with a speaker or document trying to evoke emotional responses from an audience.

However, one could make an argument that “I feel like you don’t talk to me enough,” represents an attempt to make the listener consider the feelings–emotions–of the speaker, which elicits an emotional response from the listener. That is for the psychologists to figure out. I seriously doubt this will ever be of concern for you in document design. Your personal life, however, might be full of it.

Logos

  • logic: as in a formal study and not an audience’s interpretation of what’s “logical”
  • argument: reason behind supporting a position through evidence or formal logic (as in syllogism)
  • facts: evidence claimed to, assumed to, or known to be true
  • statistics: collection, interpretation, and organization of data; often numerical or chart-based representations

Please consider the above elements when doing your assignments and use the terms in your discussions and memos.

Also, unless wikipedia is mistaken (hardly a chance at that), typefaces are not subject to copyright. Check out “Intellectual Property” section on the page.

Type Highlights

I know you use fonts daily, but do you ever stop to think about what they convey? Robin Williams is pretty detailed about how to incorporate typefaces into your designs, but I want us also to think about what typefaces convey. Let’s go over some general information on type:

  • boumas (distinctive shape of words)
    • Read this…
  • Characteristics of letter forms (Kimball & Hawkins, p. 159)
  • Serif vs. Sans Serif
    • Eye direction and perception
    • Serif creates a line
    • Sans serif’s vertical look
  • roman vs. italic
  • Text vs. Display Typefaces
    • Verdana
    • Bookman Oldstyle
  • Monospace vs. proportional
    • Imagine this line of text?
    • What does this type remind you of?
    • Where might you see this?
    • Movie Script 1 and Movie Script 2
  • Leading (not line spacing)
  • Line Spacing–single, double, triple, etc. spacing between lines (uniform across all lines)
  • Kerning–adjust the space between just two characters
  • Tracking–uniform spacing between all characters
  • Justification
  • Quotation marks ‘’ “”
  • Primes ‘ “ –When I publish my page here, the primes switch to quotation marks…
    • Compare to what Robin Williams calls “typewriter marks” (pp. 153-155–4th ed)
  • OpenType, PostScript, TrueType: If you’re interested in a brief discussion of these, click on the link.
  • Setting typeface (“font-family”) for webpages
  • Typeface vs font
  • Antialiasing: reduces distortion when an originally high resolution image (or sound) is displayed (or played) at a lower resolution.

Describing Fonts (What rule/s am I breaking?)

The following font is “professional” because it has a no frills look that calls out longevity and stability. The typeface is Bookman Old Style. It’s rather “stately” looking and evokes an ethos of conservative, prudent business.

BookmanOldStyle

The above fonts conform to a business or law firm look that has no desire to be seen as goofy or childish like this font called Ravie:

RavieFont

The above font evokes a very “clown-like” ethos with the colors and wavy appearance. Also, if you think your font looks like candy, it’s probably a sign (semiotics anyone?) that you should use it for kids and not professional, white-collar businesses.

What does the following font suggest?

ORCaSTD

These fonts were created in Photoshop and saved as .jpgs–they aren’t “a cheap design shortcut” like WordArt (p. 187). Put your cursor over the font image to see the typeface name.

What do you think about this design on the wine bottle (thanks to Jennifer in a previous class for this link)?

In what time period might you find the Metro Nova typeface?

Type and Culture

Read over this section. Before we start discussing it, though, I want you to do something.

Open up MS Word (or create a new webpage and name it “culture.html” or “myculture.html” or something like that). You don’t have to put this online, but I want you to have something to review. Describe the communication attributes and affinities of your culture(s). What are the proper or improper ways of communicating in a culture you’re in or one you know well. Also, consider the documents important to your culture–what texts do you interact with? Remember, we’re not just looking at capital-C Culture; instead, consider subcultures such as workplaces, peer groups, regional memberships, educational cohort, etc.

A few weeks ago, I asked you to have a typeface that you’d be able to explain. We’ve talked quite a bit about ethos and typefaces because it seems to be more likely when discussing type. But I’m sure we can find typefaces with emotional appeals.

Consider the following cultural questions:

  • Are there any regional conclusions I can make about type?
  • What is the dominant industry, organization, bureaucracy, or condition that seems to govern business standards?
  • What is the dominant industry, organization, bureaucracy, or condition that seems to govern social standards…
    • in the country?
    • in the world?
    • in the region?
    • in the city?
    • in what part of the city?
    • in the community?
    • in your occupation?
  • What defines Charlotte life? Or what defines your hometown’s life?

What Video Game am I?

In order to see the above text in rage italic, you’ll need to have the rage italic font saved in your FONTS subfolder in your WINDOWS folder. I do have the rage italic font saved on my computer, but it doesn’t show up. Let’s see if it does in the Computer Lab. Alternatively, can you tell the difference between the following two png files?

text_rageit_r237-g90-b204 text_rageit_r255-g51-b204

Random typeface examples not included above

  • Western Look (it conveys an American West ethos)
  • Wilderness Look (what message does the characters’ shape convey?)
    River Country…(ever wonder why it closed?)

Classic Las Vegas (pre-LV strip boom)

Chinese Restaurants

  • Fung Wong
  • Happy China
  • Hunan
  • Mediterranean Restaurant…

How’d the hipster burn the roof of his mouth?

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