The Praxis of Visual Rhetoric: One Way to Teach Visual Design Skills to PTC Students

This paper provides an overview of one way to structure a class in visual rhetoric at the graduate or undergraduate level in a Professional and Technical Communication (PTC) program. While remaining grounded in visual and rhetorical theory, this class also emphasizes the production of contemporary visual artifacts and in-class critiques of those artifacts. The class not only helps students identify and implement effective and attractive visual design, but also helps them develop the language and understanding to provide direct constructive feedback to classmates on the classmates’ own visual design work. Students need no prior experience in visual design theory or applications and can access free open-source academic materials and software. During the semester, students•Read and discuss open-source texts on graphic design principles and visual rhetorical theory.•Design and compose eight weekly visual assignments, ranging from the simple (an abstract animal icon), to the persuasive (a propaganda poster) to the informative (an infographic).•Participate in weekly in-class critiques of their classmates’ design assignments.•Compose a visually oriented research paper on a chosen topic in visual rhetoric.•Design a final visual assignment that serves as an entry to STC’s Technical Communication journal cover design contest.