Blog Post 19

I. Rhetorical Overview of the Article

1. What is the author's exigence? Why does the author feel the article/argument needs to be made?

A: The author feels that this argument needs to be made to help the reader understand and interpret visuals and visual texts in a more effectively.

2a. What discourse community is the author speaking toward for the article? WHY do you think that? Provide textual evidence (e.g., specific language, tone, publication venue, etc.,).

A: In the article, the author is speaking to a group of teachers and his peers. I think this because the author uses words such as "we" and "students" to justify this.

3. What is the author's thesis/argument/niche for the piece? If possible, quote specifically from the text

Thesis: "My inability to come to a satis factoring accounting leads me to consider how notions of beauty, developed in the late eightieth century, have been used in attempts to hold together two different orders of being and - by our time - have failed".

II. Summary

1. Write a few sentences that summarizes this article in your own words; make sure to cover the main arguments AND conclusions.

In the article The Sticky Embrace of Beauty Anne Frances Wysocki argues for a different side of visualization or understanding. Wysocki discusses beauty, aesthetic, and form throughout the article. She speaks about beauty and what it truly is and how we should see it. Wysocki uses multiple authors to support her opinion and side of visual discussion. She talks about looking at beauty as imperfections and not just a focal background or “blank page” of beauty as she calls it. Also she discusses form that is grounded in a local and particular realm rather than that of the universal. She talks about this idea of universal seeing and understanding. This concept that everyone understands and knows beauty universally or throughout society. She uses authors like Kant in her discussion or argument; she quotes Kant for saying that the judgment of beauty is inherent and “universal”. Kant says this happens when someone sees and gets pleasure out of something and its form. This allows the object said to be beautiful to be made abstract and distanced. This means you see it for its beauty and image only and make no relation or feeling towards the object. Wysocki argues that teachers shouldn’t teach students about visual design and accepted rules for visual arrangement. She says we should instead question the social and cultural practices that supposedly make something beautiful. She says we should examine things as strange and look for wait stands out of the frame not just what is lying in the center. She feels that using form or the idea of a blurred imagine of beauty is a cover up and hides reality of imperfections and strangeness to the social norm. We should make and see things for being visually pleasing and stimulating. Also that we should analyzing and attempt to make what we take for granted unfamiliar to us so that we might see and appreciate its differences as more as “beauty”. Wysocki shows how form is rhetorical, controlled by choices made in history and cultural context. Wysocki feels we should try and jump out of this accepted idea or ideas and look for things that are real and strange to us instead of social norms and fake images of perfection.

2. Take the summary you just wrote and condense it into something “tweetable,” by which I mean a summary that is NO longer than 140 characters. Consider using the same conventions you would if tweeting, meaning abbreviations and informality in language.

Visuals call for a better understanding than writing.

3. What hashtags (#) would you use for this article? Stated otherwise, what key terms would you provide to describe the content of this article?

#visual #beauty #understanding

III. Burkean Parlor/Intertextuality

1. In what ways does this author and/or the ideas in this article connect with, (dis)agree with, speak to or against –I think you get the gist– previous authors and their ideas that we have encountered in this class?

A: I think that Wysocki's article identifies with Bernhardt's article in many ways but mainly because both articles talk about the importance of visuals and how using them can help you in your writing.

IV. Personal Reflection

1. How can you apply the information in this article to your own writing process? First, consider the main ideas that the author addresses, then consider other elements, such as organization, style, etc.

I can use this article the next time in writing by focusing on using visuals to convey my message to the audience better.

2. What is confusing about the article? What questions do you have after reading the article?

This article was extremely confusing. It was a hard read and it was pretty boring and dense. I thought that it wasn’t directed to student in any way and that is why it was so confusing to me.