Shaping information : the rhetoric of visual conventions / Charles Kostelnick and Michael Hassett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kostelnick, Charles.

Contributor:

Hassett, Michael, 1964-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Visual communication.

Physical Description:

xii, 260 pages : illustrations ; 27 cm

Place of Publication:

Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, [2003]

Summary:

In this wide-ranging analysis, Charles Kostelnick and Michael Hassett demonstrate how visual language in professional communication -- text design, data displays, illustrations -- is shaped by conventional practices that are invented, codified, and modified by users in visual discourse communities. Drawing on rhetorical theory, design studies, and a broad array of historical and contemporary examples, Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions explores the processes by which conventions evolve and proliferate and shows how conventions serve as the medium that designers use to shape, stabilize, and streamline visual information. Additionally, the volume defines the rhetorical nature of conventional practices, seeks to dissolve the tension between convention and invention, and explores the situational variables of specific interactions that can complicate how users deploy and interpret conventions. Kostelnick and Hassett extend contemporary theories that define rhetoric as a social act, arguing that visual conventions also thrive within discourse communities and are fragile forms that vary widely in their longevity and scope. Featuring ninety-two illustrations, Shaping Information: The Rhetoric of Visual Conventions is a thorough guide for scholars, teachers, and practitioners of rhetoric and technical communication and for professionals in engineering, science, design, and business.

Contents:

1. Visual Language, Discourse Communities, and the Inherently Social Nature of Conventions 10

2. What's Conventional, What's Not: A Perceptual and Rhetorical Tour 43

3. The Origins and Authority of Visual Language: Factors That Shape and Transform Conventions 81

4. The Mutability of Conventions: Emergence, Evolution, Decline, Revival 119

5. The Grip of Conventions: How It Develops and Its Consequences for Readers, Designers, and Researchers 163

6. The Slipperiness of Conventions: Breakdowns, Misdirection, and Other Problems of Interpretation 197.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-251) and index.

ISBN:

0809325020

OCLC:

50768601