Annotated Bibliographies

Miholic, Vincent. “Photography: A writer's tool for thinking, rendering, and revising.”  Journal
of College Reading and Learning 29.1, 1998, 21-29.

This article explains how writing and photography are complementary. Providing visual
strategies is suggested so readers can discover details when writing descriptions. The author,
Vincent Miholic, has taught various English and Reading courses in Illinois, Arizona, Florida, and
Louisiana colleges and now has settled as the Dean of General Studies at South Louisiana
Community College. Miholic discusses the importance of images and photography in developing
writing. Further, he explains how photography can allow writers to see with a greater depth
and further influence details in one’s writing process. Visual learning techniques can be very
successful when improving descriptive writing. Further, Miholic explains an example where
students write a rough draft describing something then take a picture of what they are
describing. Thus, their final drafts are filled with much more detail and observations. This can
be applied to my writing 2 project because the article emphasizes how descriptive writing can
be achieved and why it’s important. Imagery in writing and the use of photography can help
writers develop this.

Wiener, Harvey S. “Media compositions: Preludes to writing.” College English 35.5, 1974, 566-
574.

This article discusses how students should play around with non-textual things like photo essays
or collages before writing. It explains how students work with visuals and then translate them
into written texts. The author, Harvey S. Wiener, is an author of various books on writing and
was the director of the Basic Writing Program at Pennsylvania State University. Wiener explains
how non written compositions can allow students to play around with creativity in a visual way
before beginning to write. This helps writing to be more descriptive and detailed. He does this
by having students create collages before they begin writing. Many students struggle with
conveying imagery and thus this exercise can help improve it. Wiener puts an emphasis on the
link between artistic practices and writing. Further, he explains how non-verbal imagery can
allow students to see the depth and create descriptions of a verbal image. This related to the
writing two project because just like Miholic, Wiener stresses the importance of visual learning
techniques in developing better descriptive writing.

Hembrough, Tara [special issue]. “Rural and Native American Students’ Utilization of
Autobiographical Comic Strips to Explore Their Identities through Digital Storytelling in the
Multimodal Writing Classroom.”  Journal of Multimodal Rhetoric 3.1, 2019, 115-160.

This article is about a case study where students looked at graphic novels and comic books. The
students then had to make their own comics and write an essay on it. Tara Hembrough has a
PhD from Oklahoma State University and was the Administrator for the Writing Program for
Southern Illinois University for many years. The goal of Hembrough’s study was to have
students be able to express their background and culture through comic strips or graphic
novels. These two types of works need very descriptive writing and imagery in order to be
successful. Thus, this activity was able to teach kids how to write with descriptive and detail in
order to accurately explain their identities. Further, the article discusses the importance of
descriptive and detailed writing in describing traditions and cultures of Native Americans, so
these things are not stereotyped, diminished, or falsely communicated. This article applies to
the second project because it takes the link between visual learning and descriptive writing one
step further. It connects descriptive writing to explaining cultures and emphasizes the
importance of reading to better descriptive writing as well.

Mellon, John C. “Round two of the National Writing Assessment--interpreting the apparent
decline of writing ability: A review.”  Research in the Teaching of English 10.1, 1976, 66-74.

This article discusses the noticeable decline in students writing over the years. The author, John
C. Mellon has written multiple pieces on writing and graduated from the University of Chicago
Illinois at Chicago. Mellon explains the decline in vocabulary diversity over the years and
provides statistics. A lack of description and detail leads to a worse writing ability and this is
proven in the studies. He also explains that the students are beginning to write less well
because they are reading less. Younger generations spend more time with technology and on
the phone, thus interfering with time spent reading. Mellon also mentions that teachers are
assigning less reading due to increased class size and time management. Further, because of
less assigned writing, less writing assignments are required, and students practice less. Without
reading and understanding imagery written by other authors, students cannot see how this is
achieved and thus lack good writing ability. This article is beneficial to the second writing
project because it offers an opposing view of how to accomplish descriptive writing. Mellon
finds that reading more allows students to write more descriptively because they can read it
and experience it first-hand.

Barton, Fred. A description of the effects of certain spatial visualization techniques on the
composing processes of selected two-year college students [doctoral thesis]. East Lansing, MI:
Michigan State University, 1989.

The article discusses how the use of spatial visualizations can be metaphors for thought in an
essay. Fred Barton has a Doctor of Philosophy and graduated from Michigan State University.
This article is important because Barton explains how visualization techniques can influence
writing. He puts an emphasis on the importance of metaphors and how they can contribute to
descriptive writing. Metaphors allow the author to provide a comparison of two things for the
reader and thus help them understand a concept better. Metaphors an create imagery and
allow room for an author to create good descriptive writing. Barton also argues that one can
assert their individuality by choosing specific metaphors to represent specific situations. This is
important when it comes to being a creative, well thought out writer. Further, newfound
creativity and individuality can make one’s writing stand out and thus show improvement.
Barton’s article relates to the second writing project because he agrees with the significance of
visual learning, but he focuses on how you can use metaphors to create better descriptions in
writing.