Final Project:
Visual Discourse Community Analysis
Overview
For the final project, you will apply what you’ve learned from readings, activities and class discussion and
your own independent research to an analysis of a visual discourse community.
You will produce two products for this assignment:
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A formal report of approximately 4-7 pages.
A stand-alone presentation (either a Prezi or a PowerPoint) that you will share with members of
our class.
The purpose of this module is to demonstrate your ability to:
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conduct research—using library databases, web sites, and humans;
analyze the ‘boundaries” of a particular visual discourse community
draw some conclusions about the visual conventions of a particular visual discourse community;
and
gather and present examples of visual conventions used by members of this visual discourse
community
This is a research-based analysis. You might want to use the library databases and/or visit the Lied
Library to explore journals and/or trade magazines published by and for professionals in your field. If you
have time, you might want to touch base with professors or practitioners in your field to gather information
and collect examples. You will need to gather, analyze, and present both textual information (e.g.,
summaries and quotations) and visual information (e.g., example documents) in your report. That is, you
will have to both tell and show.
Deadlines
 April 21: First draft of report due for peer review
 April 28: Presentation draft due for peer review
 May 5: Final versions of report and presentation due at beginning of class.
Stages of the process
You should plan your work flow on this project so that you are completing some phase of the process
each week between now and the end of the semester.
Step 1: Getting started
To get started you should:
1. Identify a focus for your project based on what you understand about visual discourse
communities as detailed in Kostelnick and Hasset. This could be a profession or academic
discipline, a social or cultural group; it could be a rather broad discourse community or a very
limited discourse community. It should be a community that you already have some familiarity
with or interest in.
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2. Conduct research – library, online, interviews with members of the discourse community – that
will help you answer, broadly, the questions 1.) How do we identify this discourse community? 2)
What are the “rules” that guide the visual rhetoric conventions of this discourse community? 3)
What examples of conventional and non-conventional visual communication do you see in this
community?
Step 2: Describe the discourse community
Both your final report and your final presentation must include a description of the discourse community,
but the information doesn’t have to be exactly the same in both of these “texts.” For the report, you must
describe the discourse community in at least one paragraph of text that addresses these questions:
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What experiences, needs and/or expectations are shared by members of this community?
By what means (formal and/or informal) do designers and users of visual discourse in this
community gain fluency with the conventions?
In what ways – if any – do visual conventions serve as in-group identity markers for members of
this community?
How do we define the limits of membership in this community (who is a member, who is not, how
do you know)?
Using Fig. 1-13 on pg. 29 in Kostelnick as a model, create a chart that delineates membership in
your selected visual discourse community, citing specific examples of each type of community
member.
Hint: If you have difficulty with this portion of the assignment, review pages 24-30 in Shaping
Information.
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Step 3: Analyze Visual Conventions
Base your analysis on a study of at least three but no more than five examples of visual discourse from
the community you are studying.
You may need to complete additional research to fully respond to these worksheets.
Preliminary Analysis Worksheet
Complete this preliminary analysis table that focuses on your visual texts at a macro level. You’ll be able
to use this information as the basis of your description in your final report. You may find that you are
initially unable to answer all of the questions here. That’s okay, by the time you’ve finished doing some
research you’ll have all the answers.
Answer this question
What is it? What type of
visual?
Why is it used? What
does it do?
Where does it appear?
In what larger content
and context?
Who produces or
designs?
Who reads or uses?
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
What is the degree of
the currency (see pg.
36-39 in SI)
What is the degree of
rigidity?
What features appear to
be conventional?
What features appear to
be novel?
Does the visual make
an argument?
Deliberative, Forensic,
Epideictic?
Does the visual make
use of rhetorical
appeals? Logos,
pathos, ethos
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Conventions Worksheet
Next, analyze each of your visuals by looking at specific conventions individually. For each of your visuals, use this worksheet to
record textual, spatial, and graphic conventions and scale. See Figure 1.5 in Shaping Information for a model. You will incorporate the
data you record on this worksheet in your final report.
Scale
Small
Conventions
Textual
Spatial
Graphic
Large
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Worksheet: Factors That Shape and Transform Conventions
Then consider how your visuals have evolved over time. For each of your visuals, use this worksheet to analyze the factors that shape
and transform the conventions. See 82-114 in Shaping Information for help with these concepts. See Figure 3.12 for an example of
how factors might be combined in a single visual. You will incorporate the data you record on this worksheet in your final report.
Category
Shaping and Transforming Factors
Discourse
Community
Organizational Factors
Discipline-Specific Factors
Cultural Factors
Rhetorical
Generic Factors
Pragmatic Factors
Imitative Factors
External/Practical
Technology-related Factors
Economic Factors
Legal Factors
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Step 4: Write the report
Your final report should be 5-8 pages in memo format (single-spaced within paragraphs, doublespaced between paragraphs.) It will be difficult to do this assignment well in less than five pages.
You could write on this topic for 20-30 pages, but please don’t go much over 8.
I am looking for a comprehensive, thoughtful analysis of your chosen discourse community that
is grounded in theories and principles from this course. Your analysis should use explicit in-text
citations from our readings and from your own research. Include a list of works cited.
Visual material that will fit comfortably within the confines of the page without disrupting the
flow of your text, should be integrated into the body of the memo. Visuals that are too large to
integrate into the body should be included as appendix items following the memo. (Appendices
do not count toward the page total.)
You are not required to submit the worksheets in this assignment document as part of the final
report. They are intended to help you develop the quantity and quality of content that I’m
looking for in your analysis. Take advantage of them or not, as you wish.
Evaluation criteria
I will be evaluating this report based on these criteria:
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Overall quality of the analysis – are your insights/critiques supported by the evidence
presented? Is the document focused, coherent and polished? Is the analysis sophisticated
or facile?
Ability to apply key concepts from course readings to your analysis
Evidence of high quality independent research
Evidence of an effective writing process – research, planning, drafting, revision and
editing
Effective use of source material (as evidenced by appropriate in-text citations and works
cited)
Step 5: Create a presentation
Create an educational presentation (PowerPoint or Prezi) that teaches our class about your
chosen discourse community. The presentation should be free-standing (i.e. assume that readers
will engage with your production by themselves, without you present to talk or guide them
through it.)
I will be evaluating this presentation based on these criteria:
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Overall success in translating your final report into a new medium for a new audience
and purpose.
Ability to apply principles from Presentation Zen Design – effective use of type, color,
data, visuals (pictures or video), harmony and focus.
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