Today, we must respond not only to written but also to visual messages--images that typically are reinforced by verbal elements. The best verbal and visual texts construct meaning in vivid and memorable ways. Just as you analyze a verbal text during the process of critical reading, you also have to think critically about visual images or elements. The following questions can guide your critical analysis of visual texts such as charts, graphs, and tables. - What is the design or structure of the visual?
- What information do you immediately notice?
- What is the purpose of the visual?
- What thesis or point of view does the information in the visual suggest?
- What is the nature of the evidence and how can it be verified?
- What emphases and relationships do you detect among the visual details?
- How does the visual fit into the context of the verbal text surrounding it?
When viewing art reproductions, photographs, advertisements, and cartoons, learn to detect the explicit and implicit messages conveyed and the design strategies that condition your response. Consider all critical details, such as the following. - color, light, and shadow
- the number and arrangement of objects and the relationships among them
- the foregrounding and backgrounding of images within the frame
- the impact of typography
- the impact of language, if any is used
- the inferences and values you draw from the overall composition
Learn to treat visuals in any meduim as texts that need to be "read" critically. Every visual requires its own form of annotation. |
2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education