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

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Charlotte Debate
  • Conference Presentations
    • Critical Theory/MRG 2023 Presentation
    • PCA/ACA Conference Presentation 2022
    • PCAS/ACAS 2024 Presentation
    • PCAS/ACAS Presentation 2021
    • SAMLA 2024 Presentation
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
    • SEACS 2022 Presentation
    • SEACS 2023 Presentation
    • SEACS 2024 Presentation
    • SEACS 2025 Presentation
    • SEWSA 2021 Presentation
    • South Atlantic MLA Conference 2022
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • April 10th: Analyzing Ethics
      • Ethical Dilemmas for Homework
      • Ethical Dilemmas to Ponder
      • Mapping Our Personal Ethics
    • April 12th: Writing Ethically
    • April 17th: Ethics Continued
    • April 19th: More on Ethics in Writing and Professional Contexts
    • April 24th: Mastering Oral Presentations
    • April 3rd: Research Fun
    • April 5th: More Research Fun
      • Epistemology and Other Fun Research Ideas
      • Research
    • February 13th: Introduction to User Design
    • February 15th: Instructions for Users
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters More Effective
    • February 1st: Reflection on Workplace Messages
    • February 20th: The Rhetoric of Technology
    • February 22nd: Social Constructions of Technology
    • February 6th: Plain Language
    • 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
    • March 13th: Introduction to Information Design
    • March 15th: More on Information Design
    • March 20th: Reporting Technical Information
    • March 27th: The Great I, Robot Analysis
    • May 1st: Final Portfolio Requirements
  • 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 23rd: Introduction to the Class
    • August 30th: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • December 6th: Words and Word Classes
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2023)
    • November 15th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • November 1st: Stylistic Variations
    • November 29th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Rhetoric of Fear (prose example)
    • November 8th: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • October 11th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • October 18th: Choosing Nominals
    • October 4th: Form and Function
    • September 13th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 27th: Coordination and Subordination
      • Parallelism
    • September 6th: Sentence Patterns
  • ENGL 4275/WRDS 4011: “Rhetoric of Technology”
    • April 23rd: Presentation Discussion
    • April 2nd: Artificial Intelligence Discussion, machine (super)learning
    • April 4th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • April 9th: Tom Wheeler’s The History of Our Future (Part I)
    • February 13th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 15th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 1st: Technology and Postmodernism
    • February 20th: Technology and Gender
    • February 22nd: Technology, Expediency, Racism
    • February 27th: Writing Workshop, etc.
    • February 6th: The Religion of Technology (Part 1 of 3)
    • February 8th: Religion of Technology (Part 2 of 3)
    • January 11th: Introduction to the Course
    • January 16th: Isaac Asimov’s “Cult of Ignorance”
    • January 18th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 23rd: Technology and Democracy
    • January 25th: The Politics of Technology
    • January 30th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • Major Assignments for Rhetoric of Technology
    • March 12th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 3
    • March 14th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 3
    • March 19th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 3 of 3
    • March 21st: Writing and Reflecting: Research and Synthesizing
    • March 26th: Artificial Intelligence and Risk
    • March 28th: Artificial Intelligence Book Reviews
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 11th: Knoblauch. Ch. 4 and Ch. 5
    • April 18th: Feminisms, Rhetorics, Herstories
    • April 25th:  Knoblauch. Ch. 6, 7, and “Afterword”
    • April 4th: Jacques Derrida’s Positions
    • February 15th: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
    • February 1st: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2 & 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 22nd: Knoblauch. Ch. 1 and 2
    • February 29th: Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method
    • February 8th: Isocrates
    • January 11th: Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 25th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 1
    • March 14th: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women
    • March 21st: Feminist Rhetoric(s)
    • March 28th: Knoblauch’s Ch. 3 and More Constitutive Rhetoric
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • ENGL/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear
    • April 11th: McCarthyism Part 1
    • April 18th: McCarthyism Part 2
    • April 25th: The Satanic Panic
    • April 4th: Suspense/Horror/Fear in Film
    • February 14th: Fascism and Other Valentine’s Day Atrocities
    • February 21st: Fascism Part 2
    • February 7th: Fallacies Part 3 and American Politics Part 2
    • 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
    • March 28th: Nineteen Eighty-Four
    • March 7th: Fascism Part 3
    • May 2nd: The Satanic Panic Part II
      • Rhetoric of Fear and Job Losses
  • Intercultural Communication on the Amalfi Coast
    • Pedagogical Theory for Study Abroad
  • 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
    • August 19: Introduction to the Course
    • August 21: More Introduction
    • August 26th: Consider Media-ted Arguments
    • August 28th: Media & American Culture
    • November 13th: Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Part 3
    • November 18th: Feminism’s Non-Monolithic Nature
    • November 20th: Compulsory Heterosexuality
    • November 25th: Presentation Discussion
    • November 4: Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Part 1
    • November 6: Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Part 2
    • October 16th: No Class Meeting
    • October 21: Misunderstanding the Internet, Part 1
    • October 23: Misunderstanding the Internet, Part 2
    • October 28: The Internet, Part 3
    • October 2nd: Hauntology
    • October 30th: Social Construction of Sexuality
    • October 7:  Myth in American Culture
    • September 11: Critical Theory
    • September 16th: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • September 18th: Postmodernism, Part 1
    • September 23rd: Postmodernism, Part 2
    • September 25th: Postmodernism, Part 3
    • September 30th: Capitalist Realism
    • September 4th: The Medium is the Message!
    • September 9: The Public Sphere
  • Science Fiction and American Culture
    • April 10th: Octavia Butler’s Dawn (Parts III and IV)
    • April 15th: The Dispossessed (Part I)
    • April 17th: The Dispossessed (Part II)
    • April 1st: Interstellar (2014)
    • April 22nd: In/Human Beauty
    • April 24: Witch Hunt Politics (Part I)
    • April 29th: Witch Hunt Politics (Part II)
    • April 3rd: Catch Up and Start Octavia Butler
    • April 8th: Octavia Butler’s Dawn (Parts I and II)
    • February 11: William Gibson, Part II
    • February 18: Use Your Illusion I
    • February 20: Use Your Illusion II
    • February 25th: Firefly and Black Mirror
    • February 4th: Writing Discussion: Ideas & Arguments
    • February 6th: William Gibson, Part I
    • January 14th: Introduction to to “Science Fiction and American Culture”
    • January 16th: More Introduction
    • January 21st: Robots and Zombies
    • January 23rd: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • January 28th: American Studies Introduction
    • January 30th: World’s Beyond
    • March 11th: All Systems Red
    • March 13th: Zone One (Part 1)
      • Zone One “Friday”
    • March 18th: Zone One, “Saturday”
    • March 20th: Zone One, “Sunday”
    • March 25th: Synthesizing Sources; Writing Gooder
      • Writing Discussion–Outlines
    • March 27th: Inception (2010)
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • A Practical Editing Situation
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • How to Lie with Statistics
    • How to Make an Argument with Sources
    • Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”
    • Judith Butler, an Introduction to Gender/Sexuality Studies
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • 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 » September 25th: Page Design

September 25th: Page Design

Announcements

  • Citizen Jane: Battle for the City
    Thur., 9/28 (6:00 pm-8:00 pm)
    UNC Charlotte Center City
  • IFest: International Festival (this is quite a good time)
    Sat., 10/14 (all day)

    Barnhardt Student Activity Center

Plan for the Day

We’ve got a few things to do today, so below is a list:

  • 5182 Projects and Leading Class Discussion (let’s talk at the end of class)
  • Effective Repetition: ethos, pathos, logos
  • Chapter 3 in Design for Information
  • Page Design
  • Chapter 5 in The Non-Designer’s Design Book
  • Possible Photoshop Lesson on Extracting Images
  • Bring in typefaces in for after the Midterm Exam (or, at least, be able to point to them on 10/16)
  • Document #2 Workshop 
  • Midterm Review (time permitting)
  • Document #1 issues

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

Before we go any farther, let’s read over the questions on p. 67 about ethos, pathos, and logos. Also, I want to remind you that a goal of this course is for you to recognize your biases and how you construct meaning or allow certain appeals to persuade you. We’re approaching from a cultural studies point of view, so personal tastes and convictions have to be scrutinized as just that–personal. Those tastes and convictions are not generalizable or universal.

I have a brochure to look at that will help us think about these appeals. Open the NPIC “Pets and Pesticide Use” fact sheet. It’ll open as a pdf. Of course, the appeals are below:

  • Ethos: appeal or presentation of one’s character or credibility…try not to get emotional about character! Get it?
  • Pathos: appeal to emotions; evoking emotional responses in the audience.
  • Logos: appeals to logic; facts in a message. Remember, logic is a formal study and not the whims, quirks, or assumptions of an individual. For instance, claiming, “that’s the logic I used to get to my conclusions” really has nothing to do with the formal study of logic: it’s a synonym for process in the above sentence.

The above modes of persuasion often work together in messages. In order to fully understand these modes, however, I’m asking you to be very specific in how you explain these appeals.

Time permitting, we’ll discuss the following webpages:

  • AARP–Medicare Part D
  • Kick Butts Day

Something I came across and wanted to ask you about a particular graphic…

Design for Information Ch. 3

As you’re no doubt aware, this book is big on images and sparse on prose, so it’s quick to read but takes a bit to process. Speaking of time, did you hear the one about Father Time and his son Justin…

  • What communication situation does the visualization on p. 82 solve?
  • p. 83: “Lakoff and Johnson explain that…most idioms emerge from our concepts of ‘containers’ and ‘moving objects.'”
    • “Events and actions are correlated with bounded time spans, and this makes them ‘container objects.'”
  • p. 84: Measuring time is an agreed upon convention.
  • p. 86: “Stephen Jay Gould explains…’history is an irreversible sequence of unrepeatable events.'”
  • “Time has no direction.”
  • However, “in the modern world there has been a predominance of the linear model when depicting historical time.”
  • p. 88: Tvertsky claims “The perceptual world has two dominant axes: a vertical axis defined by gravity and by all things on earth correlated with gravity; and a horizontal axis defined by the horizon and by all things on earth parallel to it.”
    • “In representations of time…the horizontal orientation is prevalent.”
    • “Literature in perception and cognition has shown that we tend to use the direction of our writing systems to order events over time.”
  • p. 96: We understand events diachronically (over time).
  • p. 97: Magic number 7…

Case Studies

  • pp. 98: Alfred Barr’s Diagram
  • pp. 98-99: Ward Shelley’s “Addendum to Alfred Barr, ver. 2”
  • What can we say about the ethos of this version? (scroll down a bit for a discussion here)
  • pp. 102-103: “Fifty Years of Space Exploration” (need Flash plugin)
  • p. 108: Compare the “Diagram of the Chronology of Life and Geology” with the following
  • Image 1
  • Image 2
  • Image 3
  • Image 4

Page Design

So how do we get into a discussion on “viewing pages” of all topics? In some ways it’s quite similar to our previous discussions, but I think we need to focus on how an audience consumes a document. Here’s a quote from Kimball & Hawkins’s Document Design:

“page design is the process of placing design objects such as text, headings, and images consistently and effectively on the page, taking into account the actual visual field, the characteristics of the design objects, and the relationships implied among them by the principles of design” (p. 115).

  • Consider the translations and technology changes for ancient texts
    • Aristotle’s work…in 1566!
    • What Aristotle’s word might have looked like when first found.
      • No, I’m not an expert in papyrology, so don’t think I have any last word.
    • A slideshow from the Wall Street Journal
  • How do users read texts?
    • Skim: looking for something in a document to catch your eye
    • Scan: looking at a document for particular information
    • Read: committing to the text
  • Hierarchy and Balance
    • Coretta Scott King
    • Rosa Parks
  • Symmetry or Asymmetry
    • Sotheby’s
    • GEO-Metric
  • Note on balance:
    • When considering if a design is balanced, you are interpreting the relative visual weight of objects on a document horizontally and vertically.
    • Balance
  • Watch your eyes!
    • saccades: quick eye movements
    • fixations: fixing one’s glance on something (or obsession, but that’s not an information design issue…or is it?)
  • The benefits of columns and power zones
    • Top and Right-hand side of a page
    • Thinking Maps
    • Harriet Tubman
  • 7-12 words per line for columns
  • Analogy: Points are to picas as inches are to ________.
    1 inch = 6 picas = 72 points
  • Breaking the grid / Breaking the grid
    • Legacy Magazine

What else can we say?

Chapter 5: Contrast

Now that you’ve read chapters 1-5 and most of 8 in The Non-Designer’s Design Book, you’re probably getting a feel for the author’s design agenda. What do you think drives her design decisions? Talk about that amongst yourselves for a little bit. There’s no right or wrong answer (although there could be goofy answers), but please have some evidence (from the book) about what you believe her design agenda to be.

The web and dark backgrounds…what’s your take?

Document #2 Workshop

You will have a chance to do these after next week’s Midterm Exam. I wanted to preview them now. If you’re done with Document #2 or don’t want to work on it here, move on to the Midterm Assignments below. These are webpage requirements, but they do not need to be finished the night of the midterm. Fit them in when you can:

Picture Frame:

I want you to create an InDesign document on your own with help from this tutorial. You’ll be creating a “Picture Frame” that you will link to from your homepage.

Easy Logo:

Also, you need to create a logo using Photoshop. I have this tutorial up here but will put up the rest of the tutorial later.

You may also work quietly on your Document #2–Advertisement and Flyer. Please have others look at your designs, but, of course, please be quiet while others are taking the midterm. On October 8th, you’ll have a more formal workshop where I’ll ask you to comment on a fellow classmate’s document. Look at the assignments page for more details.

Document #1 General Issues

I haven’t finished commenting on all of your Business Cards and Letterheads, but I noticed some patterns and wanted to provide some general, overall comments. These are pretty good designs for the most part. Remember, I’m not going to overemphasize the product, but I do expect carefully planned documents. I grade across the semester, so you might want to revisit the syllabus’s definition of A, B, C, D, and F grades.

More importantly, however, I would like for you to understand why you’re making the choices you make. You really need to use your memos to explain how your choices communicate your documents’ messages. Many of you did a good job explaining perception and your document–how readers/users where supposed to navigate your design–but all of you need to focus on cultural and, of course, rhetorical aspects of your designs. Risk being too obvious, and use terms like ethos, pathos, and logos if they apply. Every single memo should have the phrase “[This design choice] conveys an ethos of __________.” Don’t forget to also prove that.

Many of you are just doing surface observations of your work and a few of you are using vague terms like “professional” or “powerful” without explicitly bringing out any cultural explanations. Please be specific in your future documents (and revisions) about why you feel a certain feature works the way you think. Remember, I’m also trying to get you to not rely on pet peeves, tastes, and convictions. Give my some proof, or make an argument. I’m likely to hold the same “self-evident” truths you have and operate under the same nebulous “common sense” assumptions for many design choices, but I want more explanation. Remember, the analysis you do on your documents is the most important component of this class; learning to make things pretty is secondary to critical thinking.

On a different note, please remember to be consistent with your business card and letterhead designs. Look for the following:

  • Capitalization
  • Colors: green or #009940 (See the difference?)
  • Font style (aka. typeface)
  • Order of elements
  • Punctuation

Also, it’s ok to use Times New Roman and Arial typefaces, but you really need to explain why. Williams has a negative view of those typefaces, so, if you use them and don’t explain why they enhance your message, it’s a sign you aren’t reading. The same goes for centering your designs–why do you go against her good advice? Calibri and Verdana could also be considered overused. In fact, Verdana is really only for webpages and not for printed out documents. We’ll get to that later this semester. It’s good to break rules and conventions, but you need to be conscious of why; otherwise, it’s a distracting mistake.

Midterm Preview

This page and back to the beginning of the semester. all the reading form both textbooks. Class discussions. Ethos, pathos, logos.

Bonus Assignments for 5182 Students

I want to talk to the 5182 group about their bonus assignments, so those of you enrolled in 4182 aren’t responsible for these. Check out the Assignments Page–Leading Class Discussion and Bibliographic Essay.

Next Class

MIDTERM!!! I know you’re as excited as I am about the midterm, but it’s late, so I understand if your enthusiasm is subdued. After you finish the Midterm next week, please work quietly on Document #2. I will also have a webpage assignment for you, so no, you may not leave immediately after the Midterm. I’ll be giving you Monday (10/09) and Tuesday (10/10) off, so you’ll be fresh and ready for the next class (10/16), which is when Document #2 is due.

Keep up with the reading. We’ll discuss Ch. 4 in Design for Information and Ch. 6 in The Non-Designer’s Design Book on 10/16.

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