Blog 6

In Diana George’s From Analysis to Design, she states her main focus which is “On arguments that have been made for including the visual in composition courses because these arguments are linked closely to discussions of basic literacy and even to English departments’ investments in literary studies rather than to professional communication’s emphasis on the functions or uses of visual information.” (George).

One thing George brings to attention is visual literacy and visual literacy in the classroom. “If we are ever to move beyond a basic and somewhat vague call for attention to “visual literacy” in the writing class, it is crucial to understand how very complicated and sophisticated is visual communication to students who have grown up in what by all accounts is an aggressively visual culture” (George). She talks about visual literacy and zooms in on how many people feel that it is ruining people, but it has a lot of benefits. Although it may lessen communication skills, it helps people get more of a visual sense of how to go about something whether it be a skill or a lesson. In the classroom, George gives the example of learning from pictures rather than words. Understanding what is going on in a picture is important because it can work on ones creativity, imagination, and critical thinking skills while describing what is going on in the picture. One thing that stays the same while moving from text base to visuals in a classroom is critical thinking. One has to analyze both a text and visuals.

She uses multiliteracies in the sense that it is one thing to analyze the image but to fully understand it is important. One way to use multiliteracies in a classroom is to use both images and texts in a lesson so students can have a variety of ways of learning.