The Stories We Tell (S19)
The Power of Rhetorical Choices in Narrative:
Impact of Visual Literacy and Thoughtful Word Choice
Rhetoric – this word is so loaded that, after taking an entire course where understanding rhetoric is essential to developing the dimensional style of narrative, I still have troubling defining this term. However, one significant thing I learned from this course is that rhetorical choices are key to communicating ideas to my intended audience. Working with the audience’s expectations and prior knowledge are key to creating a successful narrative. Through my first-year seminar called The Stories We Tell, the aforementioned narrative class, I honed my skills in two rhetorical choices that I believe enhance my work’s quality – integrating visuals as evidence and selecting strong words that give the reader a visceral feeling. I am a stronger writer because I am more cognizant and active in making these rhetorical choices.
The use of visuals to support a concept is a conventional technique that has many forms, strengths, and interpretations. A “visual” is anything that is not simply words on a paper – common examples include pictures, graphs, films, and music. Even alterations to the text itself such as changing the size, color, and appearance (bolded, italicized, highlighted, etc.) is a visual and stylistic choice. The overwhelming use of visuals in writing makes it no surprise that it is an effective rhetorical choice. A visual supports a concept for the reader to understand, such as a graph that describes research findings. The visual can also start conversation and allow the reader to interpret a concept similarly or differently from the author as they delve into the piece. A notable example of this may be my choice to add the famous picture of Nettie Hunt and her young daughter sitting on the Supreme Court steps after the Brown v. Board of Education decision (1954) to introduce my paper where I discuss how this decision’s impact is not as influential as people think. Even not using a visual is a strategic choice, perhaps to grant the reader with more imaginary freedom. In a narrative, visuals for these reasons and more help the author communicate their message more effectively and emphasize the narrative style’s purpose of showing that one idea can have conflicting perspectives. Although using visuals can undeniably strengthen a composition, mistakes in incorporating visuals into a work can generate opposite results, which is why I elected to avoid using visuals until recently.
Constant exposure and encouragement to use visuals for my first-year seminar class taught me how to analyze and incorporate visuals as part of textual evidence. Before taking this class, I was hesitant to use pictures to supplement my written works. I feared that the visual would distract readers from my work and that my observations of a picture would be invaluable because they were my opinions. This changed when I began taking The Stories We Tell, where it seemed that every assignment and discussion involved interpreting a visual. Although I had no problem sharing my thoughts on visuals in class, my nerves and doubts shied me away from acculturating visuals into my first major assignment, a disaster narrative. Since this narrative was from my perspective, I convinced myself that an arbitrary picture of the Parkland Shooting would not be part of my story and may require more work than necessary. Looking back, I am disappointed in my unwillingness to take risks and fully incorporate lessons from class. Fortunately, a full dive into learning how to perform visual analysis shook my doubt enough for me to give better effort for the next major assignment. I learned an abundance of new techniques through studying visuals such as the film, Last of the Mohicans, and Andy Warhol’s artwork. Techniques included paying attention to background, body language, sounds, actor choice, camera angle and speed, color palette and perspective. Debating the rationale behind the artists’ and directors’ choices is just as impactful and credible as textual evidence. I also learned that pictures themselves are narratives and they can tell stories on their own or with text. With more confidence in my visual literacy skills and the drive to not let my hesitation distract me from taking risks, I centered my second major assignment, an analytical essay on a story with varying narratives, around visuals.
Exercising my visual literacy in my The “Culture” of Harlem piece strengthened my commitment to this rhetorical choice made me understand why it enhances narrative writing. I challenged myself by making my observations of the following picture central sources of evidence:
My claim is that Harlem’s competing narratives created a mixed culture for modern Harlem that includes word and context manipulation. I observe how the building, street, and people of the street corner of 125th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard changed from 1989 to 2017 and how the competing narratives would view these changes. I also supplemented these observations textual evidence. For example, I noted that Native black Harlemites may view the 1989 street stores as progressive because of black-owned businesses’ novelty whereas profit-hungry gentrifiers would disapprove of this scene because of the stores’ weariness and inactivity. These observations guided my evidence search so that I could support my claims about the pictures, in one instance even driving me to hunt down a book that provided more history of one of the stores, Men’s Walkers. Further, I employed this picture to intrigue my audience with provocative rhetorical questions in the introduction, such as “Which [picture] seems to have the most “culture?” I posed these questions to prepare my readers for the information ahead and put them in the shoes of the people living through Harlem’s cultural war. Deciding “which Harlem” has the “most culture” and by whose standards is a debate plaguing many Harlemites today and I wanted my readers to experience this before I shared my thoughts. Through rhetorical questioning, I built a rapport with my audience that I can integrate into narrative writing, making later commination easier and highlighting narratives’ attention to personal experience.
My evolved writing style from the Harlem paper spilled into my future narrative works. In creating a narrative for this e-portfolio, I carefully select pictures that support that I am an excited “student of life” that enjoys trying fun, engaging and sometimes unusual activities. I also added pictures to my older compositions to contrast my simple black and white website theme. Without visuals, my self-acclaimed narrative may not completely convince my viewers and leave them wanting more. Visuals in narrative tackle the classic “show don’t tell” problem and supports the cliché that “a picture says a thousand words.” My newfound comfort in this rhetorical choice made me a more resourceful writer and I plan to utilize it more in the future.
Strategic diction is an artistic and tedious rhetorical choice that immensely refines compositions. Although “choosing the right words” sounds like a simple task we all learn at a young age, I found that even a couple of word swaps completely changes the tone of a composition. Both of my first-year writing professors stressed the importance of picking words that the readers can feel and avoid weaker and overused words such “to be,” “to say” and “nice.” Making the reader “feel” the word refers to the words stimulating the reader’s senses and/or memory. For example, on page 4, I mention that I had to “hunt down” a book to learn more about the store, Men’s Walkers. This imagery is more effective than me simply stating that I “found a book” because the former is more specific, and a reader can visualize me searching for the book feverously, perhaps as they had to do once. This can lead to more investment in the story because more specific words incite senses and memory. Combing my works to choose better words is time-consuming but always worthwhile.
My past weaker word choice makes me appreciate how much I grew as a writer and how stronger diction vastly improves my messages. The following is the conclusion paragraph of my first draft of the first paper I wrote in college. I assess Journalist Barbara Ehrenreich’s validity in her social experiment of living poor for a couple of months:
Although this first draft impressed my professor, there is vast room for improvement. First, I use weaker verbs such as “to use” and “to be” instead of employing more specific and memorable words that can communicate my ideas more accurately. For instance, in the second sentence, instead of stating that Ehrenreich simply “uses” her experiences, I can specify that her experiences “illustrate” the rigors of poverty. That is not to say that I should never use weaker verbs. There may be only one way to say something and squeezing in overly complex, unfamiliar words may convolute my claims and make it seem that I am trying too hard to sound intelligent. The second major issue with this paragraph is me making a point with twice the amount of words necessary. I learned various shortening tips from William Zinsser’s On Writing Well to combat these lengthy sentences. For example, in the first the sentence in the paragraph, instead of declaring that the working poor “‘are deserving of’ proper treatment,” I can trim this statement to express that the working poor “deserves better treatment.” These phrases state the same thing, but the latter sounds cleaner and more concise. These small modifications throughout a long composition will make it less exhaustive for the reader and easier to stick to often restrictive word limits. In a narrative, they also direct more attention on the character(s) and central ideas of the work, especially when the words are strong enough to leave lasting feelings on the reader. Familiarizing myself with this rhetorical choice made me a more patient and knowledgeable writer. My revision process now takes much longer than writing the composition and Merriam-Webster Dictionary/Thesaurus is my partner in crime. I can also better combat the “wordiness” complaint I often receive from peer reviewers and am more confident in my work.
I am a better narrative writer because I integrate visuals and stronger, more thoughtful words into my work. Becoming aware of these choices showed me that writing is a process meant to be long but progressive. When I use pictures and specific words to develop a narrative, the piece becomes more memorable and engaging for the audience. In a way, rhetorical choices bridge the gap between the author and readers. They also illuminate the story and other rhetorical choices that characterize narratives, such as “the power of one” and including context. I will continue to employ these techniques in the future as well as develop new skills to enhance my writing.
-Maxine 🙂