Writer’s Corner

Writing the Visual Literacy Essay

By this point, over the course of your writing about various paintings and ekphrastic poems you will have practiced the basics of visual literacy. You have:

• Described the painting
• Broken down the composition of the painting
• Discussed another writer’s interpretation of the painting
• Explored your own interpretation of the painting in contrast to another writer’s

We might describe this process as:

Description of an image or object

Explanation of its inner structure and how it works

Exploration of other writers’ thoughts about the image

Ideas about others’ opinions that represent original thought.

Otherwise written as:

Ekphrasis > Analysis > Research > Synthesis

This writing formula isn’t limited to writing about images. This is a structure that can be used to produce an effective academic research essay on almost any subject. It is also the format of many reviews, journals, newspaper and magazine articles, books, blogs, and other forms of informative, analytical writing.

A visual literacy essay would use something like the following prompt:

Find a painting you want to discuss. In 1000 words, follow the formula above for describing and analyzing the painting. Then find an example of another writer discussing the painting (find this before you start the essay) and compare and contrast your response to theirs.

You would need to describe the painting, analyze it, introduce another writer’s ideas about the painting, and then make a judgement on the painting using your own and your source’s ideas that you couldn’t have come to before you started the essay.