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Project Summary
Integrating visual rhetoric in first year writing instruction improves the students’ learning experience. This approach deepens critical thinking and intellectual inquiry by reinforcing rhetorical principles through multimodal composition (which is already a focus in the final project of College Writing), prioritizing transferable visual literacy skills and complementing writing outcomes - critical thinking, audience awareness, and relevant structure/organization.
As communication becomes increasingly multimodal, it is vital that FYW courses reflect the rhetorical complexity students encounter in their daily lives. Visual rhetoric is crucial to meaning-making in digital and print spaces. This project proposes that visual rhetoric can deepen the students’ understanding of argumentation while developing visual literacy skills along core composition goals.
In the Fall 2024 semester, the Rutgers-New Brunswick Writing Program and the Zimmerli Museum hosted an exhibition called “Conversations,” designed to enhance visual rhetorical skills in First Year Writing students. This research proposes to offer ongoing support for this collaboration by continuing to study the theory, pedagogy, and practice of a dynamic and evolving collaboration between the Zimmerli Art Museum and the Rutgers Writing Program.
Key priorities are as follows:
Assess the efficacy of the Fall 2024 collaboration
Identify best practices at peer institutions for similar collaborations
Create materials and activities aligned with writing pedagogical outcomes and materials that can be placed in the space
Design and build an ongoing collaboration between the Zimmerli and the Writing Program
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