Ramus, Visual Rhetoric, and the Emergence of Page Design in Medical Writing of the English Renaissance

Written Communication Oct 1991

Ramus, Visual Rhetoric, and the Emergence of Page Design in Medical Writing of the English Renaissance

ELIZABETH TEBEAUX

Abstract

The evolution of page design to improve the readability of technical writing can be traced to improvements in typography and also to the influence of Peter Ramus. Ramus's logic used bracketed outlines to show the relationships among ideas within larger concepts. Used by legal writers and Puritan theologians to analyze concepts, Ramist method was also used by English physicians who sought to create medical texts that could be easily read and remembered by students and practitioners. Texts that used Ramist method illustrate their writers' awareness of the importance of making information visually accessible by use of white space, headings that reveal hierarchies of ideas, and bracketed dichotomies and partitions to reveal content for selective reading.

Journal: Written Communication
Published: 1991-10-01
DOI: 10.1177/0741088391008004001
Open Access: Closed
Topics: multimodality technical communication race and writing

Citation Context

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Cites in this index (1)

TEBEAUX (1991)

Visual Language

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

Also cites 4 works outside this index ↓

10.2307/747349

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10.2307/375964

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10.3758/BF03203549

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10.1037/0022-0663.74.3.323

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