"A Modest Proposal"

The “umbrella” question overshadowing my critical photo-essay project is “How do readers encounter and handle texts?” As a way to formulate a thesis for this question, I plan to research how reader’s eyes are guided throughout the text, what effect imagery and icons have on the reading process, and how might reading techniques such as “skimming” affect a reader’s comprehension of a text. I’m also considering looking into how the presentation of certain genres influences a reader’s interpretation of a text. We’ve encountered many of these topics in class already, but I believe supplementary research will yield even greater insight into these areas. Although each subject could itself provide enough material for an extensive research paper, I hope to glean the core concepts offered by each and combine them into a cohesive project that would address several aspects of reader behavior.

I’m mainly interested in this research question for the applications it could present to me as a reader and writer. The question of how readers see and respond to texts ultimately leads to the discussion of how much choice and control readers have over a text. As a reader, I’m concerned with how much of the writer’s message I’m actually absorbing and understanding versus how much I’m actually inventing. As a writer, I’m interested in how my writing style or presentation may affect the fidelity of my message or increase the opportunity for reader interpretation. However, I’m also fascinated by how giving the reader a sense of “choice” could be a powerful tool of rhetoric. The most successful rhetoric appears not to be “my” idea, but “your” idea, right? If the idea was “yours,” this implies you had choice in the matter. So by utilizing the patterns of reader behavior, couldn’t a writer “manipulate” a text to give a reader a sense of choice and control, while in fact, it is the writer who controls most of the discourse? I have no idea if this is actually possible, and I hope my research project would reveal the plausibility or implausibility of this idea.

I anticipate that much of my research will be based on class readings, additional works by Kress and Wysocki, and whatever other scholarly articles I may come across online that pertain to the project. I’m also debating whether I should interview some graphic design professors (I think J. Conger and S. Newman hold these positions at MSU) in order to discuss the rhetorical influence of design. Yet another aspect of my research may take place in my mode of presentation. Because underlying my project is my interest in reader choice as a rhetorical tool, I’m playing with the idea of presenting my project as sort of a “simulation” (not sure if this is the correct word, vocabulary fails me). For example, consider educational computer games for little kids. The kids have the choice where to “travel” to in the game, and so they encounter different aspects of the game at different times. However, at each section or “stage” of the game, there’s some sort of pre-programmed lesson or “trial” presented to the gamer. Therefore, if I could figure out how to set up my project in similar fashion, I and my readers could see if the conclusions drawn by my research are true or false. In other words, my presentation should reflect the concepts addressed by the research. Does this make sense? (And if this type of presentation is possible, my computer-nerd cousin will certainly enlighten me). If I can’t create this simulation thing, I hope to still strive for somewhat of the same effect by creating a webpage that is basically a monstrous infographic.

Just as Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal suggests outrageous ideas, so too might my “modest proposal” seem outrageous. I’m wondering if this project is too ambitious and too much to tackle on, or if it meets the Goldilocks standard of “just right.” I’m very excited by the prospects of this project, so I’m kind of hoping that if my proposal really does submit too much, the alternative wouldn’t be too watered-down. Do you have any suggestions?