Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing by Elizabeth Losh et al. (review)

This book is the first of its kind in composition and rhetoric: a writing textbook presented in the form of a comic book. Adding to the growing body of research and pedagogy in visual and multimodal literacy, according to its introduction, the volume aims at first-year composition students and contains both theoretical background and practical tips for completing writing. On the whole, the book is a success (especially in presenting a well-crafted graphic format), though it also risks undermining its multimodal goals by largely emphasizing established writing approaches that center on the traditional academic research paper. In that sense, the book offers a contradictory message: while it is composed in the form of a comic book, it tries to teach (mostly) print-based academic writing.

Understanding Rhetoric evokes an interest in textual, visual, and artistic aspects of composing. It lists four authors: two are teachers and scholars in rhetoric and writing (Losh is the director of the Culture, Art, and Technology program at the University of California, San Diego, and Alexander is director of the Center of Excellence in Writing and Communication at the University of California, Irvine); Kevin and Zander Cannon (not related to each other) are established artists and cartoonists. Clearly, the book is well crafted; the illustrations and overall approach as a comic book meet their goal of being both visually interesting and informative. The illustrators draw the two academics in a creative, friendly, and approachable manner, and they craft good movement and continuity into their panels. In terms of structure, the book presents seven chapters, or “Issues;” each chapter is color-coded and includes a three-part structure—a first section in which the teachers present an issue and “illustrate” it with examples; a second section, titled “Reframe with Luis and Cindy,” in which two imaginary freshman students work through an assignment; and finally, a two-page “assignments” section that proposes a sampling of possible class projects inspired by the chapter’s content. This structure works well, though a reader will recognize its form and function from innumerable previous writing textbooks. In this sense, then, this book is structured more like a conventional rhetoric rather than a comic book. Herein, then, lies a potential weakness.

This graphic book brings to mind Scott McCloud’s 1993 classic, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art--the notable and influential non-fiction comic book that analyzes comics and provides a how-to guide for crafting them as both an artform and a means of communication. Even though the authors of Understanding Rhetoric do not mention Understanding Comics, a brief consideration of McCloud’s book is quite enlightening. Specifically, in chapter seven McCloud outlines “the six steps” that comics share with all other art forms. As McCloud explains, art of any kind and in any medium “is essentially tied to the question of purpose,” (169) and generally follows six “paths” (169), or steps for its realization. These six steps are idea/purpose, form, idiom, structure, craft, and surface. For example, a painter will first think of the purpose or philosophy of the work; she will then chose a form (an oil panting, a chalk drawing); the third step is to decide on a genre within the overall form; as a fourth step the artist will then compose the piece (leaving out some details and including others); after this step the painter “crafts” the painting using skills and practical knowledge; and finally, the painter will focus on surface matters to polish the piece Now, McCloud’s comic book is about comic books: as he lays out these six steps, he shows how and why to compose each step. His book is thus both an explanation of what graphic stories do (steps one and two), and a guide about how to compose graphic stories (steps three through six). As a result, McCloud’s first step—the content of his book, his philosophy, his purpose, namely, to explain to readers...