Date of Graduation
Summer 2016
Degree
Master of Arts in Writing
Department
English
Committee Chair
Lyn Gattis
Abstract
This study is meant to deepen the discussion Dragga and Voss began in "Cruel Pies” by exploring the connection between data displays and their ability to evoke or suppress emotional reactions in readers. It begins with a literature review of relevant discussions in ethics and technical writing, and then describes how readers responded to a series of news excerpts—some of which were paired with data displays or photographs—both by answering Likert scale questions and by thinking aloud and responding to written, open-ended questions. Though the quantitative data collected from the Likert scales is not robust enough to make any generalizations, the verbal responses indicated that readers' emotional reactions were typically caused by specific interpretive lenses through which they viewed the excerpts. Data were not related to interpretative lenses that typically seemed to cause stronger emotional responses, but sometimes affected emotional intensity by helping or hindering readers' understanding.
Keywords
technical writing, ethics, intuition, rhetoric, visual rhetoric, data displays, information design, logos, ethos, pathos, emotion
Subject Categories
Creative Writing
Copyright
© Hanna Louise Landgrebe
Recommended Citation
Landgrebe, Hanna Louise, "Investigating The Relationship Between Data Displays, Rhetoric, And Reader Response In Technical Writing" (2016). MSU Graduate Theses. 2967.
https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/2967
