Chapter 3: Decoding Visual Arguments

82

See the additional resources for content and reading quizzes for this chapter.

image
© Gerard Jones, Gene Ha, Will Jacobs.

83

AT ISSUE

Do Violent Media Images Trigger Violent Behavior? (continued)

In Chapter 2, you read essays focusing on whether violence on TV and in other popular media can be blamed (at least in part) for the violence in our society. Now, you will be introduced to a variety of visual texts that offer additional insights into this issue. At the same time, you will learn how to use the critical-reading strategies that you practiced in Chapter 2 to help you to decode, or interpret, visual texts and to use visuals as springboards for discussion and writing or as sources in your essays.

A visual argument can be an advertisement, a chart or graph or table, an infographic, a diagram, a Web page, a photograph, a drawing, or a painting. Like an argumentative essay, a visual argument can take a position. Unlike an argumentative essay, however, a visual argument communicates its position (and offers evidence to support that position) largely through images rather than words.