English 380: Visual Rhetoric. When I first signed up for the class I was prepared for reading and writing. I mean it was an English class I signed up for. Well, when I came to class the first day and read through the syllabus my thoughts were completely wrong. We were going to have to use our creative minds to understand words and pictures. What the heck? I didn’t sign up for an art class. You then went more in-depth of what we were going to be learning and I started to relax and become a bit more interested in what we were going to learn. I think the whole issue for me was that I wasn’t sure if I was ready to step out of my comfort zone, just meaning that this English class was going to be completely different than anything I had ever done before.
Before joining this class I didn’t think of myself as a very creative person. I mean I was confident when it came to my writing, because I had been working on that all my life. I wasn’t confident when I walked into this class because we were doing something completely different, but now I’m happy to admit that I absolutely loved this class.
My learning has changed dramatically over the couple months of being in this class. Before Visual Rhetoric I barely knew how to use Photoshop. When I first started I was so frustrated because I didn’t know that you needed to add a new layer to do different things with each structure. I now love to use Photoshop and it’s actually enjoyable for me to sit in front of my Mac and work on different projects.
I think the two biggest things that really helped my learning this semester was the Infograph project and the Pecha Kucha project. When we first started the Infographics I had absolutely no idea what I was doing in general and for my project. I didn’t want to do something that was just simple to do. I wanted to think outside of the box. I thought it would be interesting to see how much money I spent in the course of three months and I was actually shocked with my results. The biggest thing I learned in this is that nothing is ever perfect, with my writing and projects in general. You can always do revisions. I think I’ve changed my Infograph about 8 or 9 times since I said I was “done.” Revisions are actually fun to do because you learn something new, and find better ideas for the project and or writing.
Pecha Kucha was fun to do because I was able to explore Rochester, something that I had yet to do in the two years that I’ve been living here. I never really thought about the importance of space, words, and meanings within a community. Schoen Place is a historical monument in Pittsford. I loved learning about all the preserved buildings and what meaning Schoen place really had to the community.
Throughout this class I have now learned that the word rhetoric doesn’t have to deal with just writing. Visually we have to understand why words were placed with pictures, and also why buildings were placed where they were. We have to visually think, instead of just write. I’m sad that this class is ending but I’ve learned a lot of things about myself and my writing that I will take with me once I graduate in May and venture out into the real world.
