Mind Games (Jordan Gearhart)

Mind Games

Chapter one in “Envision” was extremely interesting. The main focus of the chapter is analyzing texts. The definition used the most in this chapter is the word rhetorical. Rhetorical means the writer aims at persuading particular audiences through the careful choices made by the writer in composing the text. This definition can be confusing at times. I never realized how much writers try to persuade someone’s mind. Everyday on my way to class there is some form of writing that catches my mind. After reading this chapter, I can now see how each writer is trying to persuade a certain group of people. Writing is not the only way people can be persuaded to do something. Another way to persuade a group is by visual persuasion. This means writing with images.

Writing with images can work well. Every day I see many different pictures, all most around campus. There are not many students that look at the picture and go through the rhetorically process. When I see a picture there are times I do the rhetorically process. I ask myself “What is this image trying to make me think?” All images are trying to persuade you to think a certain way. Another thing I learned in this chapter is cartoon pictures can go a long way. Most the time cartoons are funny, but they can have a powerful message to them. In this chapter I saw different cartoons dealing with certain issues. Each and everyone had a different message. Most of the cartoons were funny. At the same time they had a message that was important to America in some way. This is a great opening chapter in this book. It changed the way I look at writing and pictures now. There is always one question that every one should have in their mind. That question is “What is the writer or picture trying to make me think.” There is no way to escape this. Every time someone goes somewhere there is some form of persuasion.