Nonlinear Elements

ENGL 3190

Textual Information

Usually displayed linearly, line-by-line Some rhetorical situations require nonlinear

presentations

Types

Tables Flowcharts Organizational charts Decision trees Concept charts

Consider this …

You want to travel from Ogden to Farmington on FrontRunner

To find your arrival time, you have to sift through text

Schedule

FrontRunner from the Ogden Intermodal Center departs at 5:08AM, arrives at Roy at 5:15AM, arrives at Clearfield 5:23AM, arrives at Layton 5:30AM, arrives at Farmington 5:40AM, arrives at Woods Cross 5:53AM, arrives at Salt Lake City Intermodal Hub 6:07AM

Luckily

UTA provides riders with a fairly clear table http://www.rideuta.com/ridingUTA/viewSchedule.aspx?abbreviation=750&dir=1&

service=4&signup=77&pdaView=False

Data Displays

Show quantitative information using images Rhetorical situation guides effective displays

Types

Bar chart Pie chart Line graph Scatter plot Maps

This is the World (right?)

How about this?

Or this?

Or this?

Pop Culture Reference for the Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8zBC2dvERM

Rhetorical Situation

Audience Purpose Context

Examples

Sources

Kostelnick and Roberts, Designing Visual Language, 1998.

Maps: http://www.colorado.edu/geography/gcraft/notes/mapproj/mapproj.html