Rhetoric & Visual Arguments
Analyzing Visual Arguments
Visual arguments use images to engage viewers and
persuade them to accept a particular idea or point of
view.
Advertisements are only one type of visual argument.
Any argument, visual or verbal, contains
3 main elements:
• Claims
• Evidence
• Assumptions
• What is the claim in the following video? How effective is
the visual argument?
Verbal Claims vs. Contextual Claims
A sign or wording in a photograph
makes a claim.
However, the claim made by the
photograph itself may be more
complex.
Thus, you need to consider a visual
claim in context.
Think critically about the image
and the claims it may be making.
Image claims often require
interpretation and analysis.
And those interpretations and
analyses are often subjective.
Testing Claims
Claims are declarative statements that
are either true or false, but not both.
An argument is a series of claims one of
which is the conclusion or proposition
you are using as the main thrust of your
argument.
In written argument, the proposition is
usually stated explicitly as a thesis
statement or research hypothesis.
However, in visual arguments, the
central claim and subclaims are often
implicit.
Weighing Evidence
Visual arguments use several
types of evidence to support their
claims.
Again, the evidence may be
implicit or explicit.
They may use facts, examples,
expert opinions, and appeals to
beliefs or needs to support their
claim/s.
Good analysis of this ad by the
person who created it…
Analyzing Visual Arguments
• How does the design of the visual enhance or hinder the
argument?
• What emotional appeals does the argument elicit, and
how?
• What ethical appeals make the visual argument credible?
Does it call on any authorities or symbols to establish
character or credibility?
• How does the visual argument make logical appeals? Do
words and images work together to create a logical
cause-effect relationship? How are any examples used?
• What claim/s does the visual argument make?
• What reasons are attached to the claim, and how well
are they supported by evidence?
• What assumptions/s underlie the claim and the reasons?
Reading Photographs
Migrant Mother by Dorothea
Lange: Florence Owens
Thompson, 32, a povertystricken migrant mother with
three young children, gazes off
into the distance. This
photograph, commissioned by
the FSA, came to symbolize
the Great Depression for many
Americans.
Is a scene or situation depicted?
If so, study details, research history.
Raising the Flag on Iwo
Jima is a historic
photograph taken on
February 23, 1945, by Joe
Rosenthal. It depicts five
United States Marines
and a U.S. Navy
corpsman raising the flag
of the United States atop
Mount Suribachi during
the Battle of Iwo Jima in
World War II.
Identify each figure in the photo.
What is the purpose? What is the
situation?
September 4, 1957.
Elizabeth Eckard
What details of scene or person(s) carry
significance?
March on the Pentagon on October 21st 1967.
How does the photo make you feel?
The original photo received the Pulitzer Prize for “Spot News
Photography” in 1969 under the name “Saigon Execution.” Nowadays
it is often captioned as “General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executing a Viet
Cong prisoner in Saigon.” Taken by Eddie Adams.
Food for thought:
The previous photo won Adams the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for
Spot News Photography, though he was later said to have
regretted its impact. The image became an anti-war icon.
Concerning Loan and his famous photograph, Adams
wrote in Time:
The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera.
Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People
believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They
are only half-truths. What the photograph didn't say was, "What would
you do if you were the general at that time and place on that hot day,
and you caught the so-called bad guy after he blew away one, two or
three American soldiers?"
Reading Political Cartoons
What scene is being depicted? (Identify
situation).
Identify each of the figures in the cartoon.
What is the significance of the moment?
Who speaks the lines?
What is the cartoon’s general subject?
The point/The claim/The Thesis.
Reading Advertisements
What product/service is being sold?
Who is the targeted audience?
What is the ad’s primary strategy?
Does the ad use rhetorical strategies?
(humor, understatement, irony)
What is the
relation b/w the
visuals and the
print?
What is the ad’s overall visual impression?
Consider both images and colors used.
What does being visual add to
arguments?
[The visual] adds drama and force of a much
greater order. Beyond that it can use such devices
as references to cultural icons and other kinds of
symbolism, dramatization and narrative to make
a powerfully compelling case for its conclusion.
The visual has an immediacy, a verisimilitude, and
a concreteness that help influence acceptance
and that are not available to the verbal. When
argument is visual, it is, above all, visual rhetoric.
Blair, J. Anthony. “The Rhetoric of Visual Arguments.” Groundwork in the Theory of Argumentation: Argumentation
Library Volume 21, (2012). 261-279.