The Art of the Visual Essay

Visual arguments are an important part of perceptual understanding in today's world. Literary arguments are not longer the only form of arguments. Now, visual arguments are extremely effective methods of conveying a point to an audience. I created an advertisement to demonstrate this effectiveness. The purpose of the advertisement is to prevent stem cell research from destroying unborn fetuses. This visual argument is a good representation of the effectiveness of arguing visually.

The first step to developing the visual argument is selecting an argument. I chose to argue against stem cell research, because I feel that life should be given a chance and not altered against God's will. I based my argument on the essays "Adapting to Our Own Engineering" by Robin Henig and "Victims from Birth" by Wendy McElroy. Both essays express arguments for and against genetic research which allows requires cell altering. Personally, I chose to side against pre-birth engineering, which is where my argument started.

Once I had an argument, a visual method or portraying it was the next step. Visual arguments are only as good as the number of readers they intrigue. It's important to develop a visual argument that readers give importance. A well-developed argument even draws passive readers and forces them to think deeper and assign their own opinion to the subject. Keeping this in mind, I wanted to first draw attention to the argument. To do this, I used large, bold face text at the top of the article, which reads "What if…" Also, the main focal point of the article consists of famous faces that most American audiences could easily associate with themselves.

The bold face text and the familiar faces draw attention to the argument, however the most important thing is to add depth to the argument. Explaining the bold text with smaller texts does this. The smaller text finishes the sentence began with the bold text by asking "(What if) these people had been fetuses destroyed in stem cell research." This is the central point of the visual argument, and it effectively captures the reader. By using a question, it forces the audience to establish an opinion.

Then, another text reading "Give Life A Chance" further persuades them to develop their opinion against stem cell research.
Other small elements of the advertisement offer insights into the argument. One of these elements is the black and white color of the ad. Color indicates liveliness and black and white is the opposite.

Therefore, I used black and white color for the article to make the reader feel that these people and their accomplishment would have never been alive if stem cell research had affected them. Also, a variety of people including blacks, white, men, and women comprise the overall picture in order to help the argument not offend any group. Also, the central image, which consists of many smaller images, forms a question mark, which intends to invite readers to question the subject and form their opinion.

In conclusion, all these aspects are brought together to form an effective visual argument. The visual argument argues to audiences to "Give Life A Chance" and stop stem cell research. The ad attracts the attention of audiences, and also keeps it by inviting audiences to assign their own importance to the issue. Although, a question is asked, the answer is persuaded to the audience with the small text, which is the key element of the argument. Overall, I think this advertisement could be used very effectively in a magazine for a real company or interest group.