Hocks, Mary E. “Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments."

Hocks, Mary E. “Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments." College Composition and Communication 54.4 (2003): 629-656. JSTOR. Web. 05 Oct. 2009.

By analyzing native hypertextual writing and reading processes, Hocks focuses on Web sites and the way they are changing academic conventions. Despite being an older article, Hocks examines the way that visual design is interconnected with verbal meaning – issues that are still pertinent today. Hocks concentrates on three aspects: audience stance, transparency and hybridity. Used to sway the audience, she argues that visual rhetoric is critically vital in all digital environments – web design. In addition, she proposes that rhetorical decisions influence visual design –there is a visual nature to digital design. The article critiques – assessing weaknesses and strengths – of hypertext theorists Jay Bolter, Michael Joyce, Richard Lanham, Patricia Sullivan, and others. She emphasizes that the definitions of electronic writing includes graphics, screen designs, and other digital forms.


However, primarily from a pedagogical standpoint, this article is significant because it analyzes major theorists in the field. Hocks gives added insight into the issues of visual design – the words and the images. Like Forlizzi and Lebbon, Hocks acknowledges the complexity of visual design and meaning as a blend of words and images and assesses the way visual design interacts with the audience. She argues, “Audiences can experience the pleasures of agency and an awareness of themselves as constructed identities in a heterogeneous medium” (633).