Journal of Business and Technical Communication Apr 2011

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
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing pedagogy teacher development professional writing multimodality
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (10)

  1. Andrews (2025)
    Designing Business Communications in a Disrupted Workplace
    Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
  2. Melonçon et al. (2020)
    A Field-Wide Metasynthesis of Pedagogical Research in Technical and Professiona…
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  3. Welhausen (2018)
    Toward a Topos of Visual Rhetoric: Teaching Aesthetics Through Color and Typography
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Colombini et al. (2017)
    Integrating Quantitative Literacy into Technical Writing Instruction
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Sánchez (2017)
    The Roles of Technical Communication Researchers in Design Scholarship
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
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  1. Lauer (2017)
    Editorial re-considering research: why we need to adopt a mixed-methods approac…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  2. Andrews (2016)
    Making the Familiar Strange: Thinking Visually in a Study Abroad Course in Prof…
    Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
  3. Lauer (2015)
    High-Tech Invention: Examining the Relationship Between Technology and Idea Gen…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  4. Blythe et al. (2014)
    Professional and Technical Communication in a Web 2.0 World
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Lauer (2013)
    Examining the Effect of Reflective Assessment on the Quality of Visual Design A…
    Technical Communication Quarterly

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CrossRef global citation count: 13 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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