Imagining WRTC

While considering the WRTC Foundational Document, we are tasked with selecting two poster images to brand our department—or as I've put it in my header, with "imagining WRTC." Because I think our department has so much to offer in terms of ideas, I’d like to focus on concepts and disciplinarity, rather than on people.

OK—my first image is admittedly kind of "cosmic," but I wanted to convey the ideas of writing, communication, technology, and virtually unlimited possibility. Sadly, the idea of rhetoric (my own disciplinary focus) is not directly conveyed here; probably, though, it is implied by the possibility of participating in / changing global discourse through writing and technology. From the point of view of cultural inclusion (not to mention statistical reality, at JMU), it would make sense for the hands to be those of a woman. And perhaps it would be ideal if the skin tone of the hands was tanned / light brown (are they already?).

My second image is one I created, and it’s a simple Venn diagram. Although it is simple, I’m hoping the colors—which reflect the RGB color wheel used for a lot of visual rhetoric—are eye-catching. While our three subdisciplines are peripherally inscribed in white upon their color fields, the centrally-located name of our department is inscribed in black on white, and in a larger font. The font style is intended to be crisp and narrow—to be quick and easy to read and to take up minimal width in relation to height, without visual distortion. In terms disciplinary culture, I’ve given a kind of preeminence to “technical communication” by placing it horizontally and immediately below “WRTC.” Really, that placement was necessitated by the desire to maintain design symmetry, since “writing” and “rhetoric” are more equally sized. The important thing here is the idea of subdisciplinary overlap, which implies the idea of interdisciplinarity.

WRTC Poster

“The School of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication is a community committed to preparing its students—both writers and technical and scientific communicators—for lives of enlightened, global citizenship.” I chose to take a different route with these pictures. We aren't a physically diverse group, and I don't want to use people in the images to pretend that we are. Instead, to incorporate the mission statement, I chose two static pictures. The first I took at the WRTC Meet and Greet at the beginning of this school year.

This shows e-Vision, James Madison's journal of first-year writing. Any first-year student can submit to e-Vision for publication and gives these students a chance to have their work published and understand the importance of having their work available for other readers.

The second image I chose was taken on the quad by undergraduate students for their WRTC 482 course. Their task was to design a website and they chose to incorporate campus into their website.

I liked this picture because it incorporates Harrison Hall and the Quad. WRTC and Harrison Hall are one in the same. Incorporating the "global" aspect of the mission statement, this image shows life outside of Harrison Hall. We are located in Harrison, but aren't contained to Harrison. The sky's the limit.

WRTC Poster

I pulled these words out of the mission statement as the keywords from our mission statement: community, writers, technical, global citizenship. I wanted to choose two images that best reflected these words and showed culture of our program. The good thing about WRTC is it has “diversity.” But I’m speaking about diversity in that our student’s don’t have a “type.” We attract all forms of people. I also want to reflect that in my pictures.

The first picture I picked shows students writing. Even the technical side of the WRTC program does an extensive amount of writing. Not only does this picture show the culture the program but it also portrays the students as being studious, productive students.

The second picture I chose is a very generic image of a keyboard. As a web designer, this is the type of image I would look for to put on the homepage of a website and also an image that could be manipulated for a banner or a poster. The picture is generic, doesn’t show a student (so its inclusive) and doesn’t single out either track, major or class. The picture appeals to all aspects of the program and shows the “technical” side.

These two pictures show the culture of our program without secluding either track or concentration in the program. I feel the pictures could help brand our program and portray WRTC in a positive light for incoming students and parents.

“The School of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication is a community committed to preparing its students—both writers and technical and scientific communicators—for lives of enlightened, global citizenship.”
I chose these two images to best represent the WRTC mission statement for several reasons. The first image was chosen to show the relationships between not only just students but between graduate and undergraduate students. The picture shows Christy and Katy (both grad students) sitting with an undergraduate student. To get this point across, however, there should probably be some sort of caption explaining the “grad/undergrad sandwich”. Their friendly faces and positioning around the undergraduate student portrays a sense of “community” and “global citizenship”. This picture emulates the writing side of WRTC inherently by showing the undergrad holding up an obvious piece of writing. Unlike many other majors around James Madison, WRTC has classes that give undergrads and graduates the chance to communicate and interact with each other within the learning environment.
The second picture was chosen to reflect the technical communication side of WRTC. The picture shows two students looking over a computer (that just so happens to resemble the same monitors used within our computer labs). The students have smiles on their faces and one student appears to be helping the other do her work. This portrays “enlightened, global citizenship” and “community” by the willingness of students to help each other. The different ethnicity of the students also show a diverse and multicultural feel to the picture that should be welcoming to all persons who see this poster.

WRTC

“The School of Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication is a community committed to preparing its students—both writers and technical and scientific communicators—for lives of enlightened, global citizenship.”

Although "a picture is worth a thousand words," I had a difficult time selecting the images for this assignment. My first choice (from the Science Communication Center at the University of Tennessee--Knoxville) depicts several icons of writing, rhetoric, communication, and various forms of technology: a pen and paper; a computer; a stack of books. To me, this combination suggests the timeless and multifaceted nature of the writer's (rhetorician's, communicator's) art.

The mission statement makes (excessive?) use of words that begin with "comm-": communication, community, committed, communicators. To honor this choice, and to particularize the WRTC experience to JMU, I felt that my second image should feature people. But which people? Today's students learning their craft, or the professionals that those students presumably will become? The "communicators" themselves, or the people around the globe with whom they will be communicating? I wanted to take race and gender into account on some level, as we have previously discussed. As well, with more and more people going back to school at mid-life, I wanted to find an image that would include an older or otherwise "nontraditional" student; even in our tiny Technical & Scientific Editing class, 25% of us are over 30. Finally, it would have been nice for some JMU colors or logos to make an appearance, perhaps in the form of a sweatshirt. I simply couldn't find an image that satisfied me, so I went in a different direction:

James Madison--an icon of the university, and a writer and communicator of no mean stature (metaphorically speaking, anyway).

WRTC Poster

Below are two images I chose to include in a stationary poster for the school of Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communication that will hang on the second floor of Harrison Hall. I chose two images that I felt emphasized diversity of choice students have as opposed to diversity of culture.

I thought a picture of an aerial view of JMU’s campus is appropriate for a couple of reasons. First, all Writing, Rhetoric and Technical Communication undergraduate students must meet the program’s “depth requirement” by “declaring a minor or a second major to meet the depth requirement.” Also, graduate students also have an option to take cognate courses outside WRTC. During their WRTC career, students will be exposed to classes outside of the department. Essentially, this requirement opens up the whole campus to students. I think this is something that should be emphasized by the program. In my experiences as an undergraduate here in a different major, other programs don’t require students to expand their academic horizons. And in today’s tough job market, I think that is something to stress.

While glue–stick collages aren’t necessarily professional, I felt this photo conveyed WRTC’s mission statement quite well. Collages are works of art that is made up of material usually not associated with each other. Just as the student in the picture sifts through a pile of words, phrases, and icons in order to arrange the items on a poster, a WRTC student can combine his or her interests into a finished product—a WRTC degree.

WRTC Program

First, I felt like the images it had to reflect the concepts of our field. This entails the professionalism that our field often suggests in technical communication and the scholarship that often comes with rhetoric, writing, and editing. This means that the photograph should be clean and hint towards both scholarship and excellence. At the same time, though students can range in age and we do embrace that, if I wanted to reflect WRTC in general, the undergraduate program probably gets more recognition than the graduate program, and therefore the people in the photograph had to look young enough to either be in school or fresh out of school and young professionals.





I chose this first photograph because I wanted to show people as students doing what they do most during school—working. Our field also relies heavily on group work, which is evident through the books, so I wanted to make sure that could be incorporated as well. This photograph shows diversity in gender along with possible diversity in ethnicity without looking forced. Often in group photographs, the diversity issue seems pushed and obvious, which makes it seem fake, but this photograph looks natural.





I also decided to include this picture to highlight the modern aspects of our field. We use technology on a regular basis, and if we are trying to represent the program of WRTC, then what we do is as important as who is involved. The person on the computer could be typing a paper, researching information, gathering or analyzing data, or editing; all of which touch on numerous aspects of our program. Though the hands are indicative of being certain races, the fact that the person typing is faceless to us still leaves room for prospective students to imagine themselves in this person's place.