Rhetoric in Information Design: ENGL 3369 Reflective Memo

Internal Memorandum

        To:           Richard Rice

    From:           Ashlee Jacka

     Date:           May 3, 2011

Subject:           Rhetoric in Information Design

The concept that contributed the most to my overall understanding of document development, design, and production has to be rhetoric, as it pertains to the context in which the document will be used, the audience’s attitudes toward the document, and the persuasive message intended to be achieved by the writer/developer.  In this memo, I will discuss this key concept, and how I will put my knowledge of this concept into practice in my future career.

Rhetoric in Information Design

According to Miles A. Kimball and Anne R. Hawkins in Document Design, rhetoric refers to the way in which the reader feels about the document they are viewing, as well as what the reader believes about the author of the document. The way the reader reacts to the document involves pathos, or emotion, while the beliefs the reader has toward the author involve ethos, or ethical integrity. These are two of the key aspects of rhetoric the author must keep in mind when developing the content and design of information documents to be used in specific settings, because they each play an integral role the document’s ability to influence a given audience.

From the readings and lectures experienced during the course of ENGL 3369, I learned that rhetoric also refers to persuasion. In essence, persuasion is the ability of the author of a document to persuade a specific audience to do something, or to think or feel a specific way about a specific topic. Ethos and pathos come into play the most often. For example, for one of my course projects, I redesigned two separate sheets of information about a nursing home into one complete brochure, adhering to all the elements of document design. By choosing soothing colors and comforting images and placing them amongst essential technical information about the nursing home, the reader is persuaded to feel comforted by the soothing nature of the brochure (pathos), but also feels assured that the information included in the document is correct and that the author of the brochure has their best interests in mind (ethos). Every document includes rhetoric/ is meant to persuade someone to do something, so it is essential to keep the needs and attitudes of the audience in mind throughout the process of design and development.

Rhetoric in the Workforce

In the future, I plan to be employed by an organization involved in Natural Resource Management somehow, and will likely be composing documents dealing with field reports, damage assessments, proposals, recommendation reports, expense reports, etc. These documents will either be created to appease government officials or public and private landowners, and will need to convey to the audience a deep sense of ethos since they deal mostly with funding conservation efforts; however, most Resource Management matters also greatly affect wildlife and people’s lives, and the information documents used to explain those types of personal issues will be more persuasive in nature with the use of pathos.

My dream job would be to work out in the field performing resource analysis and research procedures, such as monitoring wildlife population recovery and documenting the results, as well as monitoring and documenting the health of rangeland and wildlife habitat. My rhetorical objective with composing this or any type of document would be to persuade my audience (government officials or land owners) that my documentation is correct, responsible, and ethical, as well as to persuade them to do something (give my organization money) or feel something (motivation to implement a wildlife or habitat recovery program).

Rhetorical Conclusion

Rhetoric is the concept that added the most to my overall understanding of document design along with its emphasis on the importance of understanding the needs and expectations of a document’s intended audience. To create an effective, persuasive document, the author must first understand the audience, and then tailor the document’s rhetorical method to its specific purpose and rhetorical message. Every document has a rhetorical purpose and is used in a specific context. Recognizing the persuasive message of a document, as well as understanding the intended audience and the circumstances in which they will be viewing the document are the first and most important concepts to employ in the creation and design of any document.  

Redesign Project 5 - Nursing Home Brochure



Left side is the Back Cover, Right side is the Front Cover as the brochure would appear when folded in half.



This is how the inside of the brochure would appear when opened. 

I decided to redesign these two pages of information my mom was given while searching in town for a nursing home to put my grandmother in. I knew the information was poorly designed and confusing even before I was in a document design class. For one thing, on one sheet, all the text is centered, one of the classic alignment mistakes that rookie text producers make. Another thing on that information sheet that obviously needed to be fixed was the font and the order in which the different chunks of information were placed. Pretty much everything about these documents sucked, so I thought that making these two separate pieces of poorly compiled information sheets into one well-designed and inviting brochure that could actually clearly convey important information to an audience would be a welcomed challenge to me.

Font

Like I said, the font that was used for the text in the original information sheets is all wrong. For one thing, pretty much every new chunk of information is in a different font - very unprofessional and confusing because there is no real sense of unity to any of the information. I chose Calibre font because it is easy to read, as it a sans serif font, and the letters are nicely spaced. I made most of the text white because it shows up clearly on the blue background of the brochure. For text that is not as important or is an extra bit of information, I made the font a tan color because it still shows up clearly on the blue background, but it doesn’t pop as much as the more important white font.

Color

I chose a violet blue to be the main color of the brochure because it seems soothing and matches the violet blue in the image of the sky I chose to use on the front and back covers. I chose an image of the sky because it also seems soothing, which is something that the likely audience for the brochure will need during the trying time of having to decide what nursing facility in which to place their ailing parent. I also chose an image of the sky because it is reminiscent of Heaven, and the patients who would likely be entering the facility might be close to the end of their lives.

Alignment

Most of the text on one of the original information sheets is centered, so in my brochure design I made sure that the text was left-aligned – much easier to read. I tried to center most of the images because it makes a nice separation between the important text and the images added for emotional benefit. I also bulleted most of the information because it clearly defines which information goes together, and when a new, separate piece of information begins. I tried not to include many images because I didn’t want to bog down the brochure with unnecessary clutter and images of old people and nursing home beds and whatnot.

Wording

I changed some of the wording used to explain what Medicare covers and what it doesn’t because some of the information was simply repeated over and over again in just slightly different ways, which is confusing to the reader who automatically assumes that each block of text should convey different information. I also added information about the Health Care Financing Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services because the reader, who is likely to be the child of an aging or injured parent entering a nursing home, may want to read up on how and by who that charge was actually agreed upon.

The original information sheets included the number for the Admissions Director of the Heritage Oaks Facility, but I added the actual name of the Director of Admissions for the Heritage Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in my brochure design because it makes the brochure seem more personal. It would also make it easy for the reader to contact the correct person when they call for information about the facility.



Here's a recap of what the two original information sheets looked like.

             

Redesign Project 4 - Resume

For my fourth redesign project, I decided to go ahead and finally tackle redesigning my resume. This task was much more difficult than I had originally anticipated. I found it extremely difficult to spice up my resume for a career in technical communication because the field is technical and I was hesitant to put much ‘spice’ into the redesign. We saw many exiting examples of off the wall resumes in class: some successful, some not so successful, but in the end, I decided to take a much more traditional approach to the resume to demonstrate my ability to produce professional, technical documents to future employers.

I started making changes to my original resume with moving the placement of my name and my contact information. I created two columns for my information, and centered my name above the first column and centered my contact information above the second. I originally had my contact information just below my name left-aligned, but realized that it looked too uneven and there was too much white space at the top right of the page. I think spreading out this information creates more of a sense of balance and cuts down on the unnecessary white space.

Since I am majoring in technical communication, I wanted to create a technical, professional looking document to showcase my ability to create such a document. I used neutral colors, mainly greens, but avoided using plain black and white text to add a sense of variety and excitement to an otherwise standard, bland document. I bolded the information that I felt was more important and/or impressive about myself and my academic achievements so far. I used standard Times New Roman font to make the text easy to read, though I think the color of the text adds a sufficient exotic touch.

My minor is in Natural Resource Management, so when deciding on what neutral colors to use in my resume I decided on natural looking greens and grays. Since I plan on someday working for an organization such as Texas Parks and Wildlife or other natural resource management agencies, I thought using earthy green tones would add a hint of nature, yet because the colors I used are still quite neutral, I am demonstrating that I understand the concepts of practicality in document making. I did use white font in the dark green highlighted portion of the first column so that the text would be clearly visible.

I used two brownish green lines at the top of the page to separate my name and my contact information from the rest of the information in the resume because that indicates that they are distinctly different sections. I also used a thin white line between the two columns of information because it subtly separates the categories of information from the items in each category. I did not use bullets to separate the different items in each category because I felt that it would look unprofessional  and would take up too much space on the page.

Redesign Project 3 - Business Card



Here's a reminder of the old card



My redesign done as the project

My ex-stepdad’s business card looked very unprofessional, so I decided that it would be a good idea to help him out by designing a new one for him. The first thing I noticed about the original design of the business card is that the image in the background has no correlation with the subject matter. My ex-stepdad has an eBay business that he runs out of his house. (And when I say he has a business, I mean he goes to garage sales on the weekends and buys cheap things cheaply and then tries to resell those items on eBay for an inflated price. He collects disability checks because he can’t work, and he considers this pastime to be his job/career.)

Anyway, as I began the assignment to redesign this business card, I began looking at VistaPrint.com. As I looked at all the potential business card styles, I noticed that my ex-stepdad had actually used VistaPrint to design his original card. I think when he was designing his business card he just picked the first card style that was listed, and gave no real thought to design elements or the images and icons used. For one thing, the background image on his original card looks like the African Savannah, which has nothing to do with his business or the items he sells on eBay. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the African Savannah background image would be appropriate if my ex-stepdad was a travel agent, but in his case, the image is in conflict with the context and the message he is trying to send ‘potential customers.’

I chose the card design with an image of an old lamp, picture, and chair because those are all items that could easily be picked up at a garage sale and sold on eBay. The image of antique items is much more appropriate for the kinds of things that my ex-stepdad actually sells than a green landscape. I removed the slogan of the original card, which was ‘Have a great day,’ because it seemed an inappropriate and unnecessary item to include on any business card. I added the slogan, ‘The best little place to find garage sale treasures,’ because it tells the customer what type of merchandise they will find when they visit his eBay store, as well as what kind of place they are buying from.

I centered the name of his eBay store and the slogan because I feel that is the most important information the potential customer needs to decide whether or not they are interested in buying from the cardholder. I bolded the cardholder’s name (Todd Bridwell), because the name of his eBay business is bolded, and it shows correlation between the name of the business and the business owner. I also bolded ‘owner’ because the cardholder is also the owner of the business.  I put a slightly greater space between the physical address and the phone numbers because they are completely different methods of contacting the cardholder. I blocked the phone numbers together and put a slightly greater space between them and the email address, again, because they are completely different methods of contacting him and the space makes the information easier to differentiate.  

The Simplified Significance of the Gutenberg Press

The Gutenberg printing press enabled the mass production of books and documents in a much more timely way than they could be produced before. It was because of the Gutenberg press that the first mass production of the Bible took place, spreading ‘the word of God’ to the masses. Because of this invention, more people were exposed to the written word and were therefore more educated. As people of every social class were exposed to the written word and education, they were better able to see that their living conditions needed to be changed and that they could change it.

The Gutenberg printing press is indirectly responsible for many history changing events, including the founding of America. The printing press allowed for the mass production of the bible which meant that people who were previously unable to read could read. But since the only book many people had was the bible, religion spread. The Gutenberg press also allowed for the bible to be translated into other languages, allowing almost everyone to read it, spreading the ideas and concepts of the bible all around the world. Gutenberg died without any money or recognition, and it was only after his death that his life’s work and creation was recognized for its potential to revolutionize communication of the written word throughout the world.

The Gutenberg press paved the way for improved methods of printing the written word, such as typewriters, and computers. The publication and distribution of books would not have been possible without the initial invention of this printing press. Without it, people might still be carving messages into rock and only passing down stories through oral communication from one generation to another. Mainly, what the Gutenberg printing press did was to inspire the idea of mass, worldwide written communication, and maybe even communication in general.

Image From My Room

Page Design

In the textbook, Document Design, page design is defined as “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.”

I think a more simple way to say it is to say that page design is “the process of placing design objects on the page in the way that makes the most visual sense and adheres to the principles of design.” For my book cover redesign, the power zone is located at the top right corner of the cover and it is the design object that is the most prominent, important object, and adds the most context to the cover. Placing the image of the young man at the top of the page, the reader/audience experiences him first, relating to sequence. The flow of the page goes from the image at the top of the page, down to the left to the image of the notepad and pencil, and then to the right to the title of the novel. The reader’s eye is then moved down to the name of the author. The sequence/ flow of the document is logical, because the design elements are seen in order of importance as they are supposed to appeal first to ethos.  

It was my intention to make the visual rhetoric of the cover design to firstly appeal to ethos. The image of the young man with powerful eyes and his hand over his mouth provokes curiosity in the reader. I also tried to appeal to logos with the placement of each of the design objects.

I emphasized the connection between the author and title of then novel by making them the same color. I also emphasized the name of the author by placing the name directly in the bottom middle of the design. The angle of the pencil and the notepad works well to point to and emphasize the title of the novel. Also, by placing the title on top of the notepad, the context of the novel (the fact that the novel is about a guy who doesn’t speak and instead communicates just by writing) is more clearly stated/(implied at least). I used an orange line to separate the image of the young man from the bottom of the page because the pencil is orange, and this creates a sense of connection between the young man and the pencil.

I split the page in two, placing the image of the young man in the top half, and the title and the name of the author in the bottom half. I did t his because I thought those pieces of information were of equal importance to the effectiveness of the cover, and should therefore be given equal space. Doing this also creates a nice sense of contrast: the blackish background in the image of the young man with the gray-green color in the background of the title and author text.