"The Writing Problems of Visual Thinkers"

by Gerald Grow

School of Journalism, Media & Graphic Arts

Florida A&M University, Tallahassee FL 32307 USA

Available: http://www.longleaf.net/ggrow

II. Problems of Writing in Sequence

Importance of Sequence

Sequence is of the utmost importance in verbal thought and writing: "Dog bites man" and "Man bites dog" are fundamentally different statements. In the visual expression of that thought, sequence is irrelevant, yet there can be no confusion about who bit whom: A picture can simply show it, and show it all at once. Visual thinking produces whole, patterned expressions such as maps, symbols, and pictures. Verbal activity leads to sequences such as narratives and explanations. We have considered the possibility that visual thinkers may produce certain writing problems because they do not have the deeply developed habit of using words, along with the analytical and organizational skills required to maintain a network of interrelated, named concepts--a mental thesaurus. The next section will explore how visual thinkers show certain characteristic writing problems that appear to derive from thinking in wholes rather than in sequences.

Difficulty with Transitions

Visual writers display difficulty in handling transitions and connectives. Because their primary mode of thought is spatial, visual thinkers lack the habit of relating one element precisely to the element that follows it. Juxtaposition-the jump-cut-is the visual thinker's normal mode of transition. In extreme, visual writing sounds like haiku: briefly-evoked scenes abut one another without explanation. One professor described the writing of his artist wife as "jumping from island to island, without travelling down the freeway bridge that connects them." Verbal thinkers, by contrast, relate one sentence another through the use of connective terms like "on the other hand," "but," "accordingly," "previously," "in conclusion," "as a result," "notwithstanding," and so on. They have a sophisticated vocabulary of transitional words and phrases that specify the relationship between thoughts in the sequence and provide readers with signals that activate appropriate interpretations. Verbal thinkers work hard to place their sentences so that relationships among thoughts are either made explicit or strongly implicit. In writing, visual thinkers use fewer transitions, and use them less precisely, than verbal thinkers do. Consider these examples from the writing samples I analyzed: 1. A switch to an open office system also introduces a unique flexibility This flexibility must be incorporated in considering the initial costs of switching to an open office environment. However, not only do you have the flexibility to reconfigure an existing space but consider a move to a larger space or to a new area of the country. [Revision:] Switching to an open office system is always one of several choices, all of which should be considered in figuring the costs of the switch. Not only could you choose to reconfigure an existing space, you could move to a larger space or even to a different city. In some cases, moving may be cheaper than reconfiguring. 2. Albeit my apprehension, the readings were surprisingly palatable In the preceding examples, "however" was used for "moreover" and "albeit" for "in spite of." The writer seemed to sense that some transition was called for but did not have even these fundamental transitional words ready at hand. The thought is coherent; the mode of expression, however, shows a weakness characteristic of visual thinkers who do not have a ready command of verbal transitions and connectives, or of the mode of thought that makes those transitions work. Visual thinkers may have another reason for their difficulty with transitions. In writing, sequence is essential. Thought unfolds over time, and many of the tools of syntax and vocabulary serve to control that sequence and interrelate the sequence of words, phrases, and sentences. To the visual thinker, sequence is individual, may be unimportant, and is often subordinate to detail and pattern. Note 9 To a writer, sequence is as important as the order of dishes at a meal; a carelessly used transition could cause dessert to appear before the appetizer. In this analogy, a visual thought is more like the menu: all possibilities are present at once--and none favored.

Overuse of To Be

The visual writer's de-emphasis on sequence leads to the overuse of verbs that juxtapose without arranging. And, since everything tends to happens at once and in present time to visual thinkers, they tend to choose static verbs, the passive voice, and heavily depend on forms of the verb "to be." John Portman designed the Peachtree Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Portman's designs are noted for being in the downtown areas of cities, bringing revitalization to those areas. The Regency Hyatt House in Atlanta was a major development in hotel design. It was the prototype of future hotel design. In this design, Portman took into consideration the human factor and how people relate to their environment. The main features of the Regency Hyatt are: glass elevator cables, extensive use of art and foliage, a central atrium extending the height of the building, sidewalk cafe's, and a rooftop restaurant. These design features are seen today in other hotels by other designers. The writing of a visual thinker is difficult to revise, because you have to make so many guesses about the exact meaning and the relationship between statements. But here is the way a verbal thinker might have written the above passage. [Revision:] With the Regency Hyatt, John Portman not only helped revitalize a decaying downtown, he set a new standard for hotel design. Designed for people and the way they relate to their environment, the Regency Hyatt looms around a soaring central atrium through which visitors ride in glass elevators-looking down at sidewalk cafes, fountains, works of art, walkways, balconies, and extensive foliage-up to the elegant revolving rooftop restaurant. Hotels with these features, built by Portman and his followers, now dominate the skylines of old downtowns around the country. (Notice how the writerly passage tries to get around using a static list of features-by framing them as seen from a moving elevator.) The visual thinker's overuse of "to be" leads to subject-heavy, verb-weak sentences in which long noun clauses (the rough equivalent of visualized objects) are loosely strung together with "is." Instead of the dramatistic method of "who does what to whom now, and now, and next," the visual thinker tries to infuse prose with a multiple simultaneity that flattens out into "isisis" How his quote relates while designing a space is that the space should be designed for people to enjoy, to prosper in or relax in. [Revision:] Portman emphasizes that the interior should be designed as a space where people can prosper, relax, or enjoy themselves.

Weak Narrative

A kind of "storytelling" animates the heart of good writing and perhaps, as Fisher (1977) has argued, the heart of all communication. Good writing is inherently narrative, and storytelling is the fundamental mode of oral communication (Ong, 1982, p. 140). In narrative, pieces of thought behave like characters in a story: they move, act, change direction, contrast to others, contradict, set up expectations and fulfill them, make claims, assert truths, argue, conflict, and resolve. Good writing is not "statements of fact" so much as unfolding drama of interactive statements that challenge and qualify one another, that expand, surprise, oppose, or confirm one another. Good prose is verbal theater which the reader interprets and enacts. The first example below shows how a good writer dramatizes a point. The second "flattens" the point as visual thinkers so often do; in it, the drama of heightened sequence is replaced by a limp string: 1. When the topic of licensing interior designers comes up, the architect bristles for fear that he won't be allowed to design interior spaces any longer. This simply isn't true. 2. The relationship between architects and designers is rapidly becoming more acceptable; once thought of as a threat to them, architects are now realizing designers are a valuable asset. [The misplaced modifier ("once thought of as a threat to them") further spreads out a conflict that begs to be sharpened, then resolved. Notice the verbs: "is," "are," "are." Even a single strong verb like "bristles" can animate a passage.] Curtiss (1988) notes that art students typically have difficulty writing about themselves because they see their lives as a whole and do not easily break them into component episodes and sequences that are easy to write about. Unlike oral thinkers, visual writers have difficulty converting their thoughts into narratives. They tend to string thoughts together without any particular order. One thought doesn't follow another or lead to anything; it just is. When they use connectives at all, visual writers (like oral thinkers in this respect) favor the "additive" connectives: and, also, again, furthermore, another, as well as connectives which do not explain how they connect (e.g., "I have already mentioned"). Note 10 Unlike oral thinkers (who tend to sharpen and exaggerate), visual thinkers often list features without taking a position, imposing an order, or presenting an action: Security is a design consideration not only in residential design for personal safety and property protection, or as generally thought of as in bank's security measures but must also be considered in relationship to every type of public space-malls, airports, parking lots, hospitals, etc. [Revised:] In any type of space, the designer must consider security. People demand security -personal safety and the protection of property-in a home or a bank. It is just as important in a mall, airport, or hospital. In the habit of seeing everything as related to everything else in a continuously interacting gestalt, visual thinkers have special difficulty writing comparison and contrast: Specialization, in and of itself, is neither good or bad. In my opinion, it has both advantages and disadvantages. Some narrowing of possibilities, within the broad field of design, lies in the specific skills of the individual. Personally, I think I would make a lousy salesperson, it neither excites or interests me to attempt to persuade people into one product over another. The passage starts as a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of specialization, but it abruptly jumps to an unrelated thought, then peters out. As in many of the examples cited in this paper, this one at first appears merely to be "bad writing." It might then be explained as a typical example of a student with "residual orality" failing to write "explicit prose." I am arguing that it also has specific characteristics that result when visual thinking is imposed onto expository prose. The teacher who recognizes this as not just "bad writing" but also as "visual writing" may (as we will consider later) be led to a different strategy of remediation.

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