Chapter 8. test

Introduction

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Tutorials on Reading Visuals
Reading Visuals: Organization
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Reading Visuals: Organization

Author

Cheryl E. Ball, Wayne State University, and Kristin L. Arola, Michigan Technological University

Activity Objective:

In this tutorial, you will explore how the organization of elements in a text creates meaning.

Click the forward and backward arrows to navigate through the slides. You may also click the above outline button to skip to certain slides.

© 2018 Macmillan Learning

Organization: Define

The film poster shows the two lead actors, John Travolta and Olivia Newton John, looking towards the camera and smiling.

Credit: Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images

Organization means the way in which elements are arranged to form a coherent unit or functioning whole. You can talk about organizations of people, which put people into categories depending on their job title and department. You can talk about ways to organize your clothes, which might involve sorting by color and type of garment. You can talk about how to organize your paper, which involves ordering your points for the strongest argument.

In visual texts, you can talk about how elements are organized within a single text, like the movie poster for Grease you see here. The actors’ names at the top, the movie title below in large typeface, the list of production credits at the bottom of the poster: these elements have all been organized into a coherent text that we instantly recognize to be a movie poster.

Organization: Analyze

A photo shows a small girl choosing a dress from a colorful wardrobe.
Two girls are facing the camera while two girls are standing facing each other and looking at different directions.
A photo shows a teenage girl sitting in her bedroom; the room’s walls are covered with posters of various music bands.
A photo shows a group of girls dressed in similar gowns sitting inside a limousine.
A photo shows a girl shaving her arms.
A photo shows a painfully thin woman in a hospital gown, her arms held by two attendants.
A photo of a woman sitting at a table strewn with lipsticks and other items of makeup. The woman has a dazed look on her face and is not looking directly at the table.
A photo of a swimming team. The women are in one-piece bathing suits and are wearing swimming caps.
A photo shows people playing a board game like Bingo, except this one is called Fetus.
A photo shows three solemn looking teenage girls hugging each other.
A photo shows a woman wearing a bath suit. She is standing in front of a tub in a bathroom.
Click a thumbnail to enlarge the image.

You can also talk about organization when you’re considering a sequence of images. Here are twelve photographs taken from photographer Lauren Greenfield’s book Girl Culture. Time magazine chose these photographs and organized them into the sequence shown here. The resulting photo essay tells a story about how girls are socialized to think, look, and act—and what the consequences might be for those girls. As you flip through the images, ask yourself whether putting these images in a different order would make a different argument.

Organization: Analyze

A photo shows a small girl choosing a dress from a colorful wardrobe.

Lily’s serious expression as she shops belies her age—she’s in kindergarten. The outfit she’s wearing is a pretty sophisticated choice. By using this image to open the sequence, Time tries to shock its readers with how pervasive “girl culture” is, and how young its participants are.

Organization: Analyze

Two girls are facing the camera while two girls are standing facing each other and looking at different directions.

Alli, Annie, Hannah and Berit, all 13, before the first big party of the seventh grade, Edina, Minnesota.

The girls in this picture are eight years older than Lily—the way they’ve dressed and posed suggests that they are very self-aware. By continuing the sequence with another image of young girls, we are asked to start thinking about how and why these girls are presenting themselves. What are they emulating? For whom are they performing?

Organization: Analyze

A photo shows a teenage girl sitting in her bedroom; the room’s walls are covered with posters of various music bands.

Lisa, in her room, Edina, Minnesota.

Coming after Lily and the middle-school girls, we’re struck first by the difference between this photograph and the earlier ones. Lisa isn’t dressed up. And she looks sad. Her walls are plastered with fan pictures of boy bands (most notably Hanson) and Buffy, which suggests someone who is an innocent consumer of teen marketing.

Organization: Analyze

A photo shows a woman wearing a bath suit. She is standing in front of a tub in a bathroom.

Cindy Margolis, the world’s most downloaded woman according to the Guinness Book of World Records, in her bathroom, Studio City, California.

In a culture that values how girls look, Cindy Margolis is one of the most looked-at girls. This is the first image in the sequence that shows us a grown woman, and she is extremely sexualized; she makes her living by selling photographs of herself.

Organization: Analyze

A photo shows the back view of a woman walking on a street and three men walking opposite to her while looking at her.

Sara walks down the street, New York, New York.

We watch 19-year-old Sara walking down the street, but what we really see are three men checking her out. So far, the sequence has made the point that in girl culture, how you look determines how people respond to you—and that these social norms are established at a very young age.

Organization: Analyze

A photo shows a group of girls dressed in similar gowns sitting inside a limousine.

The damas (maids of honor) go from the church to the reception in a Ford Explorer limousine at Ruby’s quinceañera, a coming of age tradition where a girl is welcomed into her community and adulthood, Huntington Park, California.

This photo shows a group of girls dressed as princesses, participating in a ritualized ceremony to celebrate their transition from girls to women. The sequence of photos now asks us to consider how our larger society celebrates a girl’s graduation to a sexualized identity.

Organization: Analyze

A photo shows a girl shaving her arms.

Sheena shaves outside her house, San Jose, California.

Now that we’re thinking about the rituals of becoming a woman, we see 15-year-old Sheena shaving her arms—a feminine ideal taken to an extreme, albeit rather harmless.

Organization: Analyze

A photo shows a painfully thin woman in a hospital gown, her arms held by two attendants.

Erin is blind-weighed at an eating disorder clinic, Coconut Creek, Florida. She has asked to mount the scale backward so as not to see her weight gain.

The previous pictures have all been saturated in color. This one is drab and institutional, and its content suggests the very serious extremes to which girl culture can be taken. It arrests us—we are asked to stop and think about the consequences of socialization.

Organization: Analyze

A photo of a woman sitting at a table strewn with lipsticks and other items of makeup. The woman has a dazed look on her face and is not looking directly at the table.

Nkechi, then 17, was chosen by the New York Times magazine to get “Oscar” treatment and wear a Versace gown to her Crenshaw High School prom for a fashion spread, L'Ermitage Hotel. Beverly Hills, California.

Nkechi looks a bit overwhelmed as she faces a table filled with beauty products. She has won an “Oscar treatment” with makeup and clothes, yet her expression doesn’t suggest joy.

Organization: Analyze

A photo of a swimming team. The women are in one-piece bathing suits and are wearing swimming caps.

Stanford University's women’s swim team, Palo Alto, California.

While most people wouldn’t call these women’s bodies unattractive, they also wouldn’t mistake them for swimsuit models. At almost the end of the sequence, we see healthy, strong bodies. Why isn’t this the ideal body for women?

Organization: Analyze

A photo shows people playing a board game like Bingo, except this one is called Fetus.

Fetus bingo at La Vida, a high school for pregnant girls and teenage mothers, Inglewood, California.

Given everything we’ve seen so far, this photo represents the consequences of growing up too soon. Young girls are told that to be noticed they need to dress and look like a woman—but that they shouldn’t act like one. There are serious repercussions for those girls who actually do adult things, like having babies.

Organization: Analyze

A photo shows three solemn looking teenage girls hugging each other.

Joyce, 15, Elysia, 14, and Alison, 14, Arlington, Virginia.

The series ends with the image of three friends embracing. The final message is somewhat hopeful: through it all, girls rely on each other for comfort, even if growing up is confusing and exhausting.

Organization: Respond

A photo of a classroom shows young children holding pencils while smiling and posing for the camera.
A photo of a young girl looking out a window, with a notebook and a pen in hand.
A photo shows three young women sitting on a couch. They are sitting at a distance from each other.
There are men and women in this group dressed in pants and suits. A woman is shown sitting alone and looking at the group. She is wearing a formal skirt and shirt and suit.
A photo shows a group of men and women dressed in business attire engaged in a discussion. A woman leads the discussion.
A photo of a woman smiling; she is sitting in an office.
There are metal traps on the ground below the rope. A few tall buildings are shown in the background.
Click a thumbnail to enlarge the image.

Now we want you to create your own visual argument. Take a moment to look through the photos, and think about the different ways they might relate to each other or tell a story.

Organization: Respond

A photo of a classroom shows young children holding pencils while smiling and posing for the camera.
A photo of a young girl looking out a window, with a notebook and a pen in hand.
A photo shows three young women sitting on a couch. They are sitting at a distance from each other.
There are men and women in this group dressed in pants and suits. A woman is shown sitting alone and looking at the group. She is wearing a formal skirt and shirt and suit.
A photo shows a group of men and women dressed in business attire engaged in a discussion. A woman leads the discussion.
A photo of a woman smiling; she is sitting in an office.
There are metal traps on the ground below the rope. A few tall buildings are shown in the background.

Use the space below to answer the following questions.

Question

9L5hnJLjIic0Kr2PZz9ceefvlwK/PYggmvL58D82s7jIZfb9FhZmRWf6fRon7tyiWLunr1cgdDJwohXYl1FSTmo1twdgJia8LjRRONU19TgJdC+A/JY7K9DG65uXZIc33KVrqd1CyYwcw/8tSm0579Ck4hKsq95zbM/4GG9Wa4D2qSMUezNCKxG0Yjz7XFB7JFn8Epu7FDkD/aYfo0f9wFN+tJcYVt8RVqZErEoyPEuCzBo7mWZ9FSV4Kf9fqYPK4wJIfNqLSOszMWIDznZDodz7fyX81Qfw3Mlgml4RXmY1pg/7
Your response has been provisionally accepted and will be graded by your instructor.

Congratulations! You have completed this activity.

Total Score: out of (%)

You have received a provisional score for your essay answers, which have been submitted to your instructor.

Organization: Respond

A photo of a classroom shows young children holding pencils while smiling and posing for the camera.
A photo of a young girl looking out a window, with a notebook and a pen in hand.
A photo shows three young women sitting on a couch. They are sitting at a distance from each other.
There are men and women in this group dressed in pants and suits. A woman is shown sitting alone and looking at the group. She is wearing a formal skirt and shirt and suit.
A photo shows a group of men and women dressed in business attire engaged in a discussion. A woman leads the discussion.
A photo of a woman smiling; she is sitting in an office.
There are metal traps on the ground below the rope. A few tall buildings are shown in the background.

Use the space below to answer the following questions.

Question

WQko3fpvGKPtL0xiX0ZVEYTgzWZ4wF1vfzH+mY2gw+iNbjlAYUUQpQQt+k0F2VeUxPvhPhpDyDCP3mwYEJ/jGYFyLt8wMIb7833Ju9Hy9UfWSIGpE0HAUG4klWb0UOWOQ0s5S6SruyoSTGGRJ4DLU+Hvk9jVgniu35vSQpqJVhJ6dgg4jsohVR6o11K6S4Dk1p6A19Sr5l0=
Your response has been provisionally accepted and will be graded by your instructor.

Congratulations! You have completed this activity.

Total Score: out of (%)

You have received a provisional score for your essay answers, which have been submitted to your instructor.

Organization: Respond

A photo of a classroom shows young children holding pencils while smiling and posing for the camera.
A photo of a young girl looking out a window, with a notebook and a pen in hand.
A photo shows three young women sitting on a couch. They are sitting at a distance from each other.
There are men and women in this group dressed in pants and suits. A woman is shown sitting alone and looking at the group. She is wearing a formal skirt and shirt and suit.
A photo shows a group of men and women dressed in business attire engaged in a discussion. A woman leads the discussion.
A photo of a woman smiling; she is sitting in an office.
There are metal traps on the ground below the rope. A few tall buildings are shown in the background.

Use the space below to answer the following questions.

Question

UkMlfYSWvrOO8xsUYJzsApQE1JI/eekVJQk8Hrljf3ec5hSlytY5iGDe5T97SgYk/efwXFlF68ZPO1/naRqazzGl5+bXFlPwpKmAKD/o5MuLhk1Xn0qP6F8DyRXbenZyWdY1Yy0Q+5WJPLBwhLSHn9D/nDDxSWRKowkJFxMHnz39GbayY4LZ1SmkGOHAhFlya1GtgC7HblP5pSq35iAPVw==
Your response has been provisionally accepted and will be graded by your instructor.

Congratulations! You have completed this activity.

Total Score: out of (%)

You have received a provisional score for your essay answers, which have been submitted to your instructor.