Table of Contents

Prelude

Understanding How We Read and Write Today.

Looking at the History of Words and Images.

A Guided Tour of Beyond Words.

1. Paying Attention: Reading Texts

Reading Texts.

          What do you see?

          What is it about?

          To what does it relate?

          How is it composed?

          What details matter?

2. Getting Attention: Composing Texts.   

Composing Texts.

          What's it to you?

          What do you want to say about it?

          Who will listen?

          What do you need to know?

          How will you do it?

How well does it work?

3. Picturing Ourselves: Writing to Express Identities.

Introduction  Reading Portraits

What do you see?

Painting: Van Gogh, Self-Portrait.

Memoir: N. Scott Momaday, from The Way to Rainy Mountain.

What is it about? Photos: Average American Family.

Edward Steichen, “Greta Garbo”.

Walker Evans, “Hale County Alabama”.

Harry Benson, Jubilant Clay  81

To what does it relate?

Paintings: Albrecht Durer, self-portraits .

Dorothea Lange, Drought Refugees from Oklahoma

How is it composed?

Photo: Dorothea Lange, “Migrant Mother”.

Poem: Billy Collins, “Embrace”.

What details matter?Magazine cover: Wired, The New Face of the Silicon Age.

Photo: Man Ray, Black and White

American Icons.

Photos: Edward S. Curtis, White Duck and A Navaho.

Gertrude Käsebier, “Zitkala-Sa”.

Fiction: Sherman Alexie, “I Hated Tonto (Still Do)”

Poem: Luci Tapahanso, “It Has Always Been This Way”

Photos: Richard Ray Whitman, Man’s Best Friend!

Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, Damn! 

Photos: Richard Albert Allard, Henry Gray, Arizona, 1972.Coles Hairston, 6666 Ranch in Texas-  

Song lyrics: Willie Nelson with Waylon Jennings, Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys

Painting: Bernard Williams.  Sergeant Buffalo

Struggling for Self-Expression.

Installation: Zoe Leonard,  fromMouth Open, Teeth Showing   

Essay: Susan Bordo, “The Empire of Images in Our World of Bodies”.

Essay: Alison Stateman, “Postcards from the Edge”.

Photo essay: Jim Goldberg, from Raised by Wolves.

Fashioning Identities.

Essay: Josie Appleton, “The Body Piercing Project”.

Photos: Bruce Davidson, WorcesterFire Department. Steve McCurry, Ramlila Pageant Participant and Los Angeles1991”.

Essay: Alice Walker, “Dreads: It Must Be Like the Mating of Lions”.

Photo: Denis O’Regan, Bob Marley.  

Francesco Mastalia and Alfonse Pagano, from Dreads

Essay: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “In the Kitchen” 

Photo Montage: On the Cover of Rolling Stone.

Assignments and Projects.

Project 1:  Composing and Identity Collage

Student Project: Peter Anderson, Identity Collage.

Project 2: Researching and Profiling a Person.

Student Project: Billy Smith, “Gordon Parks”.

Interlude 1: Henriata Nicholas

Uhi Ta Moko: Designs Carved in Skin.

4. Seeing Places: Writing to Describe Landscapes and Environments.

Introduction.Reading Landscapes and Environments.

What do you see?

Photos: David Muench, “The Grand Canyon”.

Airstream Trailer at the Grand CanyonThe Milwaukee Museum of Art.

Melissa Ann Pinney, “Disney World, Orlando, Florida”.

What is it about?

Photos: Alice Attie, from Harlemin Transition.

To what does it relate?

Paintings: Vincent Van Gogh, Wheatfield with Crows and Starry Night.

Photo: Mural inspired by Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Columbia SC.

How is it composed?

Photos: Tomb of Ulysses S. GrantSusan Meiselas, Soldiers Search Bus Passengers along the Northern Highway.
Marc Riboud, A Streetin Old Beijing.

What details matter?

Photos: Stephen Shore, El Paso Street.Gueorgui Pinkhassov, Tokyo: Hotel in Akasaka Area 

Places We Live.

Photos: Sears House Ad, “The Dover”.Buyers looking at a house in suburbia.

1950s family room from LIFE magazine.

William Eggleston, Memphis.

Bill Owens, Couple with baby, fromSuburbia.

Film still from Pleasantville.

Essay: Cathleen McGuigan, “The McMansion Next Door: Why the American House Needs a Makeover”.

Essay: David Brooks, “Our Sprawling, Supersize Utopia”.

Photos: Stacy Peralta, from Dogtown and Z-Boys.

Essay: Cynthia Fuchs, Interview with Stacy Peralta.

Places We Go.

Photos: Vintage postcard from Jamaica.

Resort hotel in Jamaica.  

from Food for the Poor.org.

Essay: Margaret Cezair-Thompson, “Geography Lessons”.

Photo:  Damian Marley  performing in Vienna,  Virginia

Song lyrics: Burning Spear, “My Island”.

Places We Miss.

Photos: Marc A. Williams, Neighborhood Café.

Ralph Barker,  Along Route 66.

Morgan Froehl, Café Motel, Route 66.

Essay: Jenny Attiyeh, “My Ghost Town: A Vanishing Personal History”.

Fiction: John Steinbeck, from The Grapes of Wrath.

Song Lyrics: Bobby Troup, “Route 66”.

Assignments and Projects.

Project 1: Analyzing a Representation of a Place.

Student Project: Beth Murff, “`Still More Monkeys than People’: Costa Verde’s Rhetorical Paradise”.

Project 2: Observing and Analyzing a Public Space

Student Project: Jeni Byars, “The Rhetoric of Animals in Captivity in South Carolina: The Riverbanks Zoo”

Interlude 2: Milton Glaser.

A Conversation about Designing Restaurants.

5. Moving Pictures: Writing to Tell Stories.

Introduction.Reading Stories.

What do you see?

Photo Essay:  Carole Naggar, from “A Fax for Henri”  

Web page: NPR Internet Animation Goes Mainstream.

What is it about?

Photos:  “Got Milk?” Ad featuring David Mira

Martin Parr, Bored Couples    

Vince Paolo Gerace, Man running on the platform.

Howard Edgerton, High speed photo of a bullet passing through a playing card.

To what does it relate?

Photo: Lewis Hine, Girl Worker in CarolinaCotton Mill.

Web page: Home page for behindthelabel.org.

How is it composed?

Photos: Images of Michael Jackson.

What details matter?

Photos: film stills from Girl with a Pearl Earring, Gladiator, American Beauty.

Spreading the News: Stories of War.

Photos: Alexander Gardner, Dead Confederate Sharpshooter and The Sharpshooter’s Home

Essay: David Carr, “Telling War’s Deadly Story at Just Enough Distance”.

Essay: Susan Sontag, from Regarding the Pain of Others.

Photo: George Strock, Dead US Soldiers on the Beach

Film Stories of the Twentieth Century.

Photos: film stills from The Godfather and White Heat.

Photos: film stills from Casablanca.

Photos : film stills from North by Northwest.

Essay: Amy Taubin, “Fear of a Black Cinema”.

Photos : film stills from Do the Right Thing.

Essay: David Edelstein, “You’re Entering a World of Lebowski”.

Photos: film stills from The Big Lebowski.

Learning from Graphic Novels.

Essay: Charles McGrath, “Not Funnies”.

Graphic novel: Seth, from ClydeFans: Book One
Graphic novel: Dan Clowes, from Ghost World

Graphic novel: Chris Ware, from McSweeney’s Quarterly.

Assignments and Projects.

Project 1: Reviewing a Film.

Student Project: Katie Doyle, "Mean Girls: High School Uncut".

Project 2: Composing a Photo Essay.

Student Project: Michael Lee, “Images of History: The Hmong”.

Interlude 3: Maira Kalman.

A Conversation about Creating an Illustrated Book

6. Mapping Ideas: Writing to Inform and Explain.

Introduction.

Reading Images That Explain.

What do you see?

Map: File sharing by country

Chart: Graph of file-sharing downloads.

Table: The Geography of File Sharing

What is it about?

Photos: Basic printing instructions.

AIDS awareness poster.

Medical imaging of the brain.

September 11, 2001 bulletin board.

To what does it relate?

Photos: Petroglyph.

Ready.gov informational images.

How is it composed?

Photo:  Satellite image of Hurricane Floyd 

Web page: Weather.com.What details matter?

Web pages:  Graphs representing climate-change

CO2 Science Editorial Commentary  

Mapping Knowledge

Photos: The Earth from Space (NASA).

Keyhole GIS Browser.

Essay: Steven Levy, “Making the Ultimate Map”.

Photos: Keyhole views of North America, California, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Cavillo Point.

Web pages:  Skyscraper Musuem, Manhattan Timeformations

Poem: Elizabeth Bishop, “The Map”.

Essay:Alex Philip and the Geospatial Research Group, “A Spatial Exploration of Lewis and Clark”.

Painting: E.S. Paxson, “Lewis and Clark at Three Forks”.

Photos: Satellite images of Lews and Clark sites.

The Doctor Will See You Now.

Essay: Joan O’ C. Hamilton, “Journey to the Center of the Mind”.

Photos: Ultrasound images.

Photos:  MRI  Images of brain activity

Essay: Joan O’C. Hamilton, “A Sharper Picture of Health”.

Photos: Molecular Colonoscopy  Photos: Edourdo Kac, The GFP BunnyBill Scanga, Eighteen Frogs with Pants Categorized by Color.

Daniel Lee, Juror No. 6

Susan Robb, Eggspore 20.

Living in Virtual Worlds.

Map: Britannian lands from Ultima Online.

Essay: Stephen Totilo, “Do-it-Yourselfers Buy into This Virtual World”.

Web pages: from Second Life.

Essay: Sherry Turkle, “Virtual Selves, Real People”.

Essay: Julian Dibbell, “The Unreal Estate Boom”.

Photo: Kenn Brown, “Castle: $2,053 (eBay resale price)”.

Assignments and Projects.

Project 1: Mapping a Project Visually.

Student Project:  Lindsay Carattini and Karen Lancaster, “The Lives of Children in the Old South”

Project 2:. Reporting on Research in the Sciences

Student Project: Erik Williams, “Genetic Research in 2004 and Beyond”.

Interlude 4: Robin Williams and John Tollett.

Evaluating a Web Site.

7. Exploring Design: Writing to Analyze.

Introduction.

Reading Designs.

What do you see?

Photos: Film still from Schoolof Rock.

Poster ad forClueless.

Twenty dollar bills.

What is it about?

Photos: Victorian Home.

Dome House.

Diagram of camera instructions.

To what does it relate?

Photos: Artifacts discovered by archeologists.

Film still from King Kong.

Larry Bird.

Allen Iverson.

Stills from Hummer H2 Ad “The Big Race”.

How is it composed?

Photos: Commuter rail bench.

Self-serve ticket dispenser.

What details matter?

Screen: Microsoft Word font choices.

Photo: Portable plastic shelter

Wood home interior 

The Design of Everyday Things.

Essay: Pilar Viladas, “Questions for Niels Diffrient”.

Photo: Niels Diffrient designs, “Freedom” office chairs.

Essay: Rob Walker, “The Guts of a New Machine”.

Photo: iPod  mini

Essay: Seth Stevenson “You and Your Shadow”.

Photos: iPod advertisements

Parody: Chris Rose, “Local iPod sick of playing Avril Lavigne”.

Web pages: Center for Universal Design, “Universal Design Principles”.

Car Culture.

Essay: Sharon Waxman, “A Prius-Hummer War Divides Oscarville”.

Essay:  Warren Brown, “Women giving the Directions 

Photos:   The Volvo YCC concept car

Essay: Martin Wolk,  “Car Makers Aim for the `Love it or Hate it Category”

Photos: Chevrolet Avalanche, Pontiac Aztek, Edsel,  Scion xB.

Essay: Dana White, “My Life, My Cadillac Escalade EXT”.

Photo: Courtney Leigh Hyan with her Cadillac Escalade.

Reading the Politics of Design.

Essay: First Things First Manifesto 2000.

Essay:  Jeffery Keedy, “Hysteria”.

Essay: Virginia Postrel, “Light Unto the Wealth of Nations”.

Essay: Linda Baker, “Are You Ready for Some Unswooshing?”

Web page: Adbusters, Blackspot Sneaker.

Assignments and Projects.

Project 1:   Analyzing the Design of an Everday Text

Student Project:  Elizabeth Catanese “Girl Power Gone Wrong”

Project 2: Studying Design and Its Contexts.

Student Project: Sean Nixon, “The Transformation of American Architecture during the 1920s and 1930s”.

Interlude 5: Kurtis Harris.

Crime Scene Photography.

8. Debating Culture: Writing to Advocate and Persuade.

Introduction.

Reading Arguments.

What do you see?

Photos: Uncle Sam Wants You.

Bumper stickers.

Ester Hernandez, Sun Mad Raisins

What is it about?

Photo: Charles Porter, IV, “Firefighter holding a baby”.

Cartoon: Dick Locher, Thanksgiving season spoof.

To what does it relate?

Photo: VW Beetle Ad from 1960’s.

Poster: Bureau of the Census, “Listen to the Drum”.

“Got Milk?” ad featuring Ziyi Zhang

How is it composed?

Poster: Sierra Club, The Last Redwoods  What details matter?

Poster: “This is America, Keep it Free”.

Book Covers: Paul Krugman, The Great Unraveling.

Rocking the Vote.

Photo: Urban Outfitter’s T-shirt.

Essay: Al Jourgensen,“Punkvoter’s letter to Urban Outfitters”

Web Page:  Punkvoter.com

Ad: Official “Rock the Vote” t-shirt.

Essay: Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan, “Fighting the Stigma of an Apathetic Generation”.

Photo: College students at Kenyon College (OH) stand in line to voteEssay: The Onion, “American People Ruled Unfit to Govern”.

Pushing the Hot Buttons.

Photos: Advertisement and magazine cover images from the 50s and 60s.

Essay: Anna Quindlen, “Still Needing the F Word”.

Essay: Rosalind Wiseman, “Cliques No Worse Than Ever”.

Essay: Michael O’Sullivan, “One `Mean’ Teen Satire”.

Poster: Mean Girls film poster.

Photo Essay: Lauren Greenfield, Images from Girl Culture,

Essay: Jim Keogh, “Filmmaker Offers Food for Thought”.

Essay: Daniel B. Wood, “Downsize This! Americans escalate their war on fat”.

Making Our Place in History.

Essay: Eugene Kane, “A Tale of Two Cities, and Two Kings”.

Photo: Blome’s Rocky Mountain MLK.

Painting: Lev T. Mills, Out-Loud Silent

Painting: Elijah Pierce, Martin Luther King

Essay: Julie V. Iovine, “Are Memorial Designs Too Complex to Last?”

Photos: Freedom Tower site planPlacing the cornerstone for the Freedom Tower reconstruction.

Essay: Michael Arad and Peter Walker, “Memorial Proposal: Reflecting Absence”.

Essay: Daniel Henninger, “Wonder Land: Build It and They Won’t Come”.

Photos: September 11, 2001 Memorials and Archive

Essay: Steve Zeitlin and Ilana Harlow, “9/11: Commemorative Art, Ritual, and Story”.

Assignments and Projects.

Project 1: Reading Visual Arguments.

Student Project: Jonathan Butler, “Visual Images of National Identity”.

Project 2: Composing Visual Arguments.

Student Project: Melissa Johnson, “Are You Licensed?”

Interlude 6: Jon Foster.

Snowboard and Surf Photography.

Credits.

Index.

Guide to Writing Tips