Do Pictures Count?

In Yancey's Writing in the 21st Century, there is a lot of speculation about how to reform the teaching of writing. It includes models, entry-level courses in college and how children learn how read, write, and compose at the same time. Yancey poses several questions to bring about ideas on how to go about reforming writing education. One of these questions is "How and when do we decide to include images and visuals in our compositions, and where might we include these processes in the curriculum?" (Yancey 7). This got me thinking about how much I use pictures and other visual communication in my writing and how I learned to.

The most I have ever used pictures and videos amongst my writing would have to be Powerpoint. Like most teens, I found it easier and much simpler to just make a slideshow instead of a poster or a speech for a project. It was, essentially, a crutch. Pictures and videos were additional content to elaborate on a subject in high school. They were there to detract attention from a nervous speaker who was usually unprepared. In college, things changed slightly. Powerpoints and Prezis are discouraged. You could still use them, but instead of being the main project, they became an outline. Pictures and other visual communication became memory jolters and representations of key points. I remember being a little freaked out over being told that no words were allowed in a presentation; only pictures to guide thought.

Other than slideshows, I never drew pictures or included them in writing. I certainly did not use them solo to tell a story. I am not an artist, so I have no skill to illustrate a story, and doodling is frowned upon on academic papers. My papers are crisp black and white letters. A few numbers may be sprinkled about, but other than that, nothing very visually enticing.

In regards to Yancey's question, it seems that students are not allowed to use visuals unless it is for a project. Of course, there are exceptions. In my rhetorical theories class, to analyze a text we can use visuals such as photos and videos because they are included as texts. All of my professors use photos and videos as teaching tools, but from what I can gather, there is little room for visuals in full out papers. I have read huge academic papers by scholars that contain diagrams and black and white pictures, but have never done something that in depth or scholarly to warrant a visual, I guess.

As Yancey asks, when do we incorporate such things? As children, we learn how to read with the aid of picture books. As adolescents, we use them to fill up hastily constructed slideshows. As college students and young adults, they are supposed to be used as guidelines-- and possibly as elaborations in final papers and research projects. Is it when we are in the last few classes of our college careers or starting careers that we are suddenly supposed to know when and where visuals are acceptable? It seems that way, because I do not recall any lesson throughout my entire school career teaching me what situations are appropriate for visuals in writing. I learned how to display photos and gifs by googling it. Nobody sat me down; I winged it. Maybe that's what students are supposed to do until educators figure things out: wing it.

Bibliography: Yancey, Kathleen Blake. Writing in the 21st Century. Rep. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 2009. Print.