Blog Four -- Bernhardt and Horn

Synecdoche is defined as: "[A] part used to represent a whole, or vice versa...Only some elements of the total scene are needed to communicate the idea" (Horn 372).

My Verizon cellphone, the LG Dare, features a large touch screen. The main screen includes a full-bleed image, small date and time, and an image-based touch menu. The small menu has five links, each represented with a unique symbol.

What makes this menu an example of the rhetorical device synecdoche are its symbolic representations. For example, the image of an envelope representats a text message inbox. Additionally, a link featuring four circles is symbolic of the larger cellphone menu. These ideas are inferred, rather than explicitly stated. Instead of showing a link with the words "menu" or an actual image of the menu, only a small representation is needed.

Blog Three -- Foss, Foss, and Trapp

In previous courses I have been taught that humans are symbol using and misusing creatures. Additionally, I have learned that rhetoric is the art of persuasion. Thus, it stands to reason that rhetoric would be persuasion through the use of any sort of symbolism. And visuals, particularly multimedia images, would be great representations of such symbolic rhetoric.

Foss, Foss, and Trapp briefly describe such interaction: "How we perceive, what we know, what we experience, and how we act are the results of our own symbol use and that of those around us; rhetoric is the term that captures all of these processes. For us, rhetoric is the human use of symbols to communicate" (1).

Images, just as words, have the ability to influence the audience's perspective. Visuals are incredibly important to clear and concise communication. They are, many times, more straightforward than text. "[R]hetoric is symbol, by which we mean somthing that stands for or represents something else by virtue of relationship, association, or convention" (2). Images allow for a certain degree of personal interpretation that does not necessarily come with text. Viewers are free to associate the image with their own inferences. And as much as rhetoric is the persuasive abilities of the author, it also involves the interpreation of the audience.

Blog Two -- Lanham, Bolter, and Gromala

"For every application there is an appropriate rhythm between transparency and reflectivity between looking through the interface to the information task and looking back at one's relationship to the interface. The interplay of transparency and reflectivity should be the major aesthetic and practical consideration in digital design" (Bolter and Gromala 5).

"Electronic media are essentially dynamic rather than static" (Lanham 278).

Traditional mediums of text focused on a text's transparency, rather than its reflectivity. Authors ignored the design element of a text. It was, simply put, the vehicle for information distribution. Today, however, a text's interface has become of equal importance. Digital authoring has allowed a renewed sense of critical thinking, thus allowing the audience to consider multiple elements of the text. For example, how design influences a text's rhetoric.

When considering a digital medium that I use on a daily basis, I immediately considered my Yahoo! Mail browser. Looking "through" this text is inherently unconscious. I simply click links to read my new mail, compose an email, and delete old messages. The design elements of the text are transparent; I do not consider them.

However, looking "at" this interface, I am much more conscious of its components. Through digitalization, I become both a creator and critic (Lanham 268). I have the ability to alter the text in front of me. In my Yahoo! Mail, I can organize my inbox and create folders for important messages. I can also adjust the color scheme, fonts, and zoom. Essentially, I personalize the interface for my own aesthetic pleasure. The need to look "at" this text, and customize it, stems from its ineffectiveness (Bolter and Gromala 7).

Blog One -- Stroupe and Kress

We live in a society in which technology, globalization, and viral communication are necessities. Text and media work hand-in-hand with one another. Digital authoring is an everyday phenomenon, in both leisure and professional settings. Thus, universities are forced to make a choice. Traditionally slow to change, universities initially strayed from the cultural progress of mixing digital images and formats with standard texts. However, many argue that multimedia education is crucial for modern students' professional success. Therein lies the problem.

In our reading, Stroupe poignantly states: "The discipline [English studies] needs to decide not only whether to embrace the teaching of visual and information design in addition to verbal product, which some of the more marginalized elements of English Studies have already done, but, more fundamentally, whether to confront its customary cultural attitudes toward visual discourses and their insinuation into verbal texts..." (14).

It seems as if part of universities' problem in accepting multimedia authoring is its accessibility. I know how oxymoronic that might sound: writers not wanting their work to be read. But, there is something prestigious about academic texts that are published solely for fellow professors and students. There is luxury in limitedness. Additionally, the degrees of professionalism in digital texts can vary extraordinarily. This is far less true in paper formats. Anyone can post on the internet, while not everyone is qualified to publish a book. It is this level of unknown accessbility that, I feel, holds universities back from accepting multimedia authoring as a professional study.

I believe that Washington State University is progressive in its efforts to meld digital technology with English studies. They have created programs that encourage cooperation between traditional elements of English academia and contemporary authoring. Stroupe discusses the importance of "layering" studies in this way. Other universities, it appears, are following suit.