Theories of Visual Rhetoric: Looking at the Human Genome

Mary Rosner University of Louisville

Abstract

For too long, journal articles and textbooks on scientific and technical discourse have adopted a positivistic approach to visuals. Unfortunately, this approach is problematic. It ignores that visuals are constructions that are products of a writer's interpretation with its own power-laden agenda. For example, in representing a tamed and dominated nature, visuals become instruments of patriarchy. Reading them responsibly requires that we uncover some of the values attached to the strategies of creating visuals and to the objects created. This article reviews the current approach taken by composition scholars, surveys richer interdisciplinary work on visuals, and—by using visuals connected with the Human Genome Project—models an analysis of visuals as rhetoric.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2001-10-01
DOI
10.2190/bx7b-nvrj-kf3k-bybl
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

References (64) · 3 in this index

  1. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
  2. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  3. Good Looking: Essays on the Virtue of Images
  4. Rethinking Research on Composing: Arguments for a New Research Agenda
  5. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Show all 64 →
  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Professional Communication: The Social Perspective
  3. Techniques for Technical Communicators
  4. Technically-Write!
  5. Technical Writing for Readers and Writers
  6. Technical Communication: Situations and Strategies
  7. Information in Action
  8. Professional and Technical Writing Strategies: Communicating in Technology and Science
  9. The Technical Writing Teacher
  10. Technical Communication Quarterly
  11. Designing Visual Language: Strategies for Professional Communicators
  12. Picture Theory
  13. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design
  14. Critical Studies in Mass Communication
  15. 10.2307/3177802
  16. Visual Intelligence: Perception, Image, and Manipulation in Visual Communication
  17. Feminism and Geography
  18. The Iconography of Landscape
  19. How to Lie with Maps
  20. 10.3138/E635-7827-1757-9T53
  21. The Power of Maps
  22. 10.1007/BF02426838
  23. Fetal Position: Individualism, Science, Visuality
  24. Human Sciences
  25. Opening Pandora's Box: A Sociological Analysis of Scientists' Discourse
  26. University of Washington Pathology Web Resources for Cytogenetics, Department of Pathology, Male Chromosome S…
  27. University of Washington Pathology Web Resources for Cytogenetics, Department of Pathology, Karyotype Male Ch…
  28. Adler D. A., Senior Scientist, Biomolecular Informatics, ZymoGenetics & Affiliate Assistant Professor, Pathol…
  29. Picturing Power
  30. 10.1007/BF00177302
  31. 10.1177/030631285015001002
  32. 10.1007/BF00177300
  33. Knowledge and Society: Studies in the Sociology of Culture Past and Present, VI
  34. Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
  35. A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology, and Domination
  36. Engendering Archaeology
  37. Cyborgs & Citadels
  38. Modest_Witness@Second Millennium. FemaleMan©Meets_OncoMouse™
  39. 10.1111/j.1527-2001.1995.tb01001.x
  40. Lexicon Genetics and DuPont Pharmaceuticals Enter into Mouse Functional Genomic Agreements, Online posting: N…
  41. Lexicon Genetics Develops Mass Production of Knockout Mice for Functional Genomics. Online posting: News Rele…
  42. Innovative Germline Solutions: Programs in Homologous Recombination. Online posting: Lexicon Genetics home pa…
  43. 10.1525/ae.1992.19.1.02a00070
  44. Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition
  45. Ishimoto—vp L., Intellectual Property, Lexicon, Letter to the Author, December 31, 1998.
  46. Hubbard T., Human Genome Sequencing Status, June, 1998: Chromosome 7, Online posting: 12 June 1998, <http://b…
  47. Genlink, Chromosome 7 Index Map of Microsatellite Markers, in Microsatellite Loci Place on the Chromosome 7 L…
  48. Naked Science: Anthropological Inquiry into Boundaries, Power, and Knowledge
  49. 10.1016/0277-9536(92)90049-V
  50. 10.1056/NEJM199605023341812
  51. Fetal Positions: Individualism, Science, Visuality
  52. Nash J. M., Riding the DNA Trail, Time, pp. 54–55, January 17, 1994.
  53. MacIlwain C. ‘Ambition and Impatience’ Blamed for Faud, Nature, pp. 6–7, November 7, 1996.
  54. Altman L., Falsified Data Found in Gene Study, New York Times, p. Al2, October 30, 1996.
  55. Primate Visions: Gender, Race and Nature in the World of Modern Science
  56. Essays in the Study of Scientific Discourse
  57. 10.1111/j.1527-2001.1995.tb01001.x
  58. Journal of Advanced Composition
  59. Understanding Scientific Prose