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Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing, by Elizabeth Losh, Jonathan Alexander, Kevin Cannon, and Zander Cannon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 304 pp.
The authors of Understanding Rhetoric utilize the comics medium to present writing concepts for first-year composition courses and beyond. The title is a nod to the foundational comics theory treatise by Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics, in which the animated author explores how comics make meaning through image and text. Like McCloud, Understanding Rhetorics authors explain rhetoric and writing through didactic content that directly addresses the reader. Losh, Alexander, Cannon, and Cannon take form as characters Liz, Jonathan, Kevin, and Zander in the textbook as they engage students and instructors alike through compelling narrative, humor, visual metaphors, thoughtful examples, and authentic author voices.
The introduction, "Spaces for Writing," foregrounds several key writing principles and best practices: context and space, audience and purpose, writing as a process, collaboration, visual literacy, and revision. Each of these concepts is then given attention in seven "issues" (read "chapters"): (1) "Why Rhetoric?"; (2) "Reading Strategically"; (3) "Writing Identities"; (4) "Argument Beyond Pro and Con"; (5) "Research: More than Detective Work"; (6) "Rethinking Revision"; and (7) "Going Public". Each issue concludes with REFRAME and Drawing Conclusions sections. The REFRAMEs feature student characters Cindy, Luis, and Carol. Carol is Cindy's mother and a non-traditional college student. Following the REFRAME, a Drawing Conclusions section presents readers with four assignments related to the chapter's content.
Modeling Multiliteracies
Though readers may approach this text with hesitant curiosity, one strength of Understanding Rhetoric is the fact that the authors avoid making assumptions about students' (or instructors') literacies. Where the introductory issue presents concepts of visual representation by comparing cartoons, photographs, and symbols in multimodal texts, issue two explores signification in written texts. The authors introduce students to the kind of reading that will be expected of them at the college level. One concern I often have with college textbooks is the authors' inclination to assume that students already know what is expected of them. Understanding Rhetoric makes no such assumptions. In order to demonstrate critical reading for students, "Issue 2: Reading Strategically" illustrates the story of Frederick Douglass and displays how textual representation can become imagery in a reader's mind. As the story...