Visuospatial Thinking in the Professional Writing Classroom

Claire Lauer Arizona State University ; Christopher A. Sanchez Arizona State University

Abstract

It has been suggested that teaching professional writing students how to think visually can improve their ability to design visual texts. This article extends this suggestion and explores how the ability to think visuospatially influenced students’ success at designing visual texts in a small upper-division class on visual communication. Although all the students received the same instruction, students who demonstrated higher spatial faculties were more successful at developing and designing visual materials than were the other students in the class. This result suggests that the ability to think visuospatially is advantageous for learning how to communicate visually and that teaching students to think visuospatially should be a primary instructional focus to maximize all student learning.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2011-04-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651910389149
Open Access
Closed
Topics

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (7)

  1. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 7 →
  1. Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Technical Communication Quarterly

Cites in this index (4)

  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Computers and Composition
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
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CrossRef global citation count: 13 View in citation network →