College courses often ask you to analyze visual texts. You may have to analyze an advertisement in a composition class. Or your art history teacher may ask you to write about an important painting or artist. Science courses, too, often rely on visuals to present or interpret quantitative data.
Analyzing a visual is not all that different from analyzing a written text. Think about how you read a short story, for example. First you read through the story from beginning to end, to experience the story by focusing on its plot. Then you go back to question things that seem especially interesting, unexpected, difficult, or confusing. You might look at the story in terms of the elements of fiction (plot, character, setting, imagery, and so forth). Focusing on specific details allows you to deepen your understanding, which in turn leads you to a more informed interpretation of the story as a whole.
Analyzing a visual involves much the same process. You begin with your initial responses to the image as a whole, then explore specific parts or details in more depth, and then re-assemble these details into a more complete understanding of the image as a whole.
The process you use to analyze a visual text will depend on the purpose of your analysis, the audience you want to communicate with, and the nature of the visual text you are analyzing.
Use the following steps to guide you, and then adapt them to suit your own needs and writing situation. Use the questions listed with each step to generate ideas you might use in writing.
- Record your initial reactions
What do you notice first? What catches your attention? Is the image familiar to you? How does it make you feel? What does it make you think about?
- Explore the visual elements and identify important details
Consider the details that matter most. Look at the way the image is composed. Does it use colors in a special way? What point of view does it use? Can you identify one or more focal points? Does the image use contrast, lighting, arrangement, focus, balance, or other visual elements to produce a certain affect? What details surprise you? Does anything seem unusual or out of place?
- Consider the context and history of the image
When was the image produced? By whom? For what purpose? You may have to do some research to answer these questions. Try to learn as much as you can about the artist or photographer. Think about what the image may be responding to. Look at its genre and medium and compare it with similar images or visual texts from the same time period.
- Consider the process used to create the image
What type of image is it? Think about the medium used (photograph, collage, painting, digital illustration, or cartoon, for example) and compare the image to others in that medium. How is its style and technique similar to or different from others in that medium?
- Reconsider your initial reactions
Visual texts often produce immediate, emotional reactions. In light of your detailed analysis, go back and reconsider your first impressions. Does your analysis reinforce your impressions? Challenge them? Decide which details you think are most important, and use them to develop an interpretation that you can present and support in your paper or presentation.
This five-step process should help you to analyze visual texts in depth. If you answer all of these questions, you should have more than enough details written down to use in developing a short analysis paper.
Try using the following three-part structure if you are given an assignment that involves visual analysis.
- First, describe what you see in the image. Focus on specific details, and imagine you are writing to someone who has never seen this visual text before.
- Next, analyze the image. Use the five steps above to generate ideas for specific things you want to focus on. Explore specific details and examine key parts of the image as a whole.
- Finally, interpret the image. Usually, your thesis statement will present a specific claim about the significance or meaning of the image as you understand it. Interpretation moves beyond stating the obvious to present your own unique angle or argument about the image. This is where your creativity comes into play!
Applying this process
Look at two examples of visual analysis by exploring these interactive visuals. You will need the Flash plug-in to view these documents. If you do not have this free software, please use the browser tune-up to download and
install this program.
Practicing this process
Here are writing activities you can try out to practice analyzing visual texts.
