Visual+Grammar

=Visual Grammar =

Reading the visual image for meaning can be challenging. It is important that students develop a language for describing the visual elements of a picture book illustration so that they can contemplate how the meaning is developed. This can then be transported, and built upon, when looking at the visuals in film, television and electronic multimodal texts, as well advertising and newspaper text, where the nature of the images may perform a vital role in persuading the viewer of the meaning and focus.

A valuable text for developing a vocabulary of visual literacy is Kress and van Leeuwen's //Reading Images// with which many of you are well familiar (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006).

Elements to think about include:


 * angle
 * appropriation
 * audience
 * background
 * colour
 * composer
 * composition
 * context
 * fragmentation
 * framing
 * gaze
 * illumination
 * intertextuality
 * line
 * metafictive
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">//mise-en-scène//
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">modalities
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">mode
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">mood
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">perspective
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">position
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">representation
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">subversion
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">tenor
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">tone
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">vectors
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">viewer

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The above list draws on a number of areas for the decoding of these elements, including the visual arts and film literacy. They have been employed to analyse a range of multimodal texts, from the picture books that are my focus, to layout of a web page and the intricacies of film noir. There are other elements that can be considered which add to the power available to the visually literate discourse analyst. Becoming visually literate allows the reader / viewer to be alert to the persuasiveness of text. <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Acquisition of a visual language to use in exploring all forms of multimodal text such as**


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**Film**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">**web sites**
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">digital text **
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">print media **
 * **<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">advertising **