examples of a graphic essay

Graphic Essays and Comics

Overview   |   Recommended Software   |   Student-Made Examples   |   Other Examples   |   Instructional Video

A graphic essay (sometimes called a visual essay) uses a combination of text and images to explore a specific topic. Graphic essays can look like comics, graphic novels, magazines, collages, artist books, textbooks, or even websites. Graphic essays often first take the form of written essays and then have graphic elements added to enrich the reader experience. Unlike infographics, which also combine text and images, graphic essays are often more text-based and usually have a narrative arc or specific reading order.

Comics are a genre used to express ideas through images combined with text or other visual information. Comics can take the form of a single panel or a series of juxtaposed panels of images, sometimes called a strip. Text is conveyed via captions below the panel(s), or speech bubbles and onomatopoeias within the panel(s), to indicate dialogue, narration, sound effects, or other information. Graphic novels are often considered to be a longer form of comics, typically in book form.

A web-based graphic essay can take the form of a blog or a single page website, such as a Microsoft Sway page or an interactive Prezi. For Microsoft Sway and Prezi graphic essays, see the examples below. If you are creating a blog we recommend visiting the Web-Based Projects page .

Graphic Essay Design Tip: Graphic essays can take many forms, so we recommend being creative within the scope of your project! Get some help from DesignLab to brainstorm options and talk through the various tools available!

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Recommended Software

There are many different software programs that can be used to create graphic essays. Below is a list of the software that we recommend for making a graphic essay. We organized the software by category and put the software from top to bottom from best to worst. We recommend using a software you know well or learning the software well enough to establish an easy workflow, so you can spend less time troubleshooting and spend more time on your project. Check out our Software Support page for links to tutorials for all of these programs.

General Graphic Essay Software

Web-Based Graphic Essay Software

Comic-Specific Graphic Essay Software

Student-Made Examples

Print style graphic essay.

Becoming a Witness by Jessica Posnock

Creative Graphic Essay

Virtual Communication by Max Hautala   *Award Winning*

Curb Magazine (2012) by Journalism 417

Web-Based (Magazine) Graphic Essay

Curb Magazine (Current) by Journalism 417

Web-Based (Sway) Graphic Essay

Language Influences Culture, Thoughts, and Identity by Kristen Luckow   *Award Winning*

Dyslexia by Maria Swanke *Award Winning*

Other Examples

Web-based (blog) graphic essay.

Switch It Up: Graphic Essay by Amanda Zieba

Graphic Novel

Graphic Novels in the Classroom by Gene Yang

Instructional Video

Assigning a Graphic Essay as an Essay Alternative

One of my favorite ways to assess my students’ essay-writing skills without actually assigning a traditional essay is with the graphic essay . A graphic essay is an excellent essay alternative for the middle school ELA or high school English classroom.

A graphic essay is a graphic representation that contains all of the essential essay elements. It combines writing, visual elements, and design. When assigning a graphic essay, you can have students include any particular aspect from the essay that you want.

Getting Started

The first step to completing a graphic essay project in your classroom is to have a clear idea of the skills and content you want to assess. For example, if you are working on an argument and persuasive unit, are you looking to assess a counterargument? If you are working on an informative piece, are you looking for explanatory evidence?

Once you know what you want to assess, start mapping out the student requirements. I’m pretty old-school when it comes to things and prefer to draft out my notes with paper and pencil. When I do this, I make a list of all of the elements that I want my students to include. For a recent project, I wanted them to include a variety of features: introduction, big ideas with supporting evidence, counter argument, quick facts, visual data representation, and a Works Cited page.

Work Before Design

Once you have your graphic essay outlined, it is time to assign it to the students. However, and I cannot stress this enough, you don’t want them to focus on the visual and graphic elements first. That is just a hot mess waiting to happen. You know how it will go. Some students will spend the entire class period deciding between a blue or green spot color design element. By the time the class period ends, they’ll have a lovely purple box on their graphic essay, but that will probably all they have accomplished—one box.

Instead, try this. Have your students work on a brainstorming organizer first. You’ll want them to brainstorm, write, and curate all of the content for the graphic essay before they start the design process. When I complete this project in my classroom, I have them draft everything, find all of the images they want to include, and submit that work for a grade before they even start the design process.

Students either love or hate the graphic design process of this alternative essay project, and that is to be expected. When we get to the design process of this project, I try to give my students several different options for creating the final project that matches different graphic design comfort levels. A few of my students usually want to use Adobe Photoshop and design everything from scratch, a few need extra guidance working in a Google Slide, and the majority are excited to try a new online platform. Please note, this is not an ad. These websites did not pay to be included in this post.

One thing that I cannot emphasize enough for this type of project is that I grade content and not design. Let me repeat that: I assess the content of the work and not the quality of the design.

Here’s a look at some of the different platforms I suggest my students use to create their graphic essay. This list is in order from easiest to most advanced.

1. Google Docs – Most students are already familiar with Google Docs. Using the draw tool, students can create images, place text, and color to their Google Docs. For my students who need the most assistance with the design process, I have them use my initial template (which I created using the draw tool in Google Docs) and a plug and play template.

2. Google Slides – Some students might prefer Google Slides over Google Docs because they might feel like they have more freedom. Using Google Slides, students can change the dimensions of each slide to 8.5×11 inches (or larger), and use the textbox tool, shape tool, and other design tools to create the graphic essay.

3. Canva.com – I love Canva because it provides students with different design templates and elements. While there is a paid version, I tell all of my students to use the free option. Using Canva, students can select a flier because that is preset to 8.5×11 inch dimensions. Once students are in Canva, there are a ton of free design tools. Students can choose from a variety of options, including preset text designs, frames, shapes, data (which is excellent for inserting bar graphs and pie charts), and pictures. Students can even upload their own images to the site as well!

4. Adobe Spark – Adobe Spark is another great online tool for students to create graphic essays and other multimedia presentations. Students can choose a custom size to create an 8.5×11 inch poster, and Adobe Spark also has premade text elements and templates to choose from.

5. Piktochart.com – Personally, I like Piktochart more for having students create infographics instead of graphic essays, but Piktochart still works. Students can the custom size or letter size to create their graphic. Piktochart has more advanced design features, and one unique design feature is that students can design their project in blocks. Similar to Canva and Adobe Spark, students can also upload their own images to their creation.

Graphic Essay Sampler

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Sharing the File

Once students finish creating their graphic essays, I like to have them upload their creations to one location so that all of my students can see the work that everyone created. My favorite site for this is Padlet. If you haven’t used Padlet before, it is like an online corkboard. Students can post their designs to your class’s board. Students can also comment on other students’ work if you want to add a gallery walk element to this project.

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CRAFT: Let’s Get Graphic: A Look at the Visual Essay by Nicole Breit

August 1, 2018.

If you’re keen to tell new kinds of stories – or old stories in new ways – consider these ten “visual” approaches to writing short-form memoir.

1. The Photo Essay

The art of the photo essay lies in the writer’s careful selection of images balanced with the inclusion of text. Will the photos drive the narrative, or will they fill in textual “gaps” to move the story forward? Vivek Shraya strikes an elegant balance of “showing” and “telling” in her compelling photo narrative, “ Trisha .”

2. The Concrete Essay

This form is the next evolution of concrete poetry (A.K.A. shape or pattern poems), reincarnated as CNF. Jennifer Wortman’s “ Worst-Case Scenario ” presents the story of her husband’s 35-feet fall into a gap while rock climbing, visually – via text shaped like the rocks he fell through.

3. The Illustrated Essay

There’s something so charming about a notebook doodle – perhaps because sketches convey the character of the artist in such an immediate way. I love the narrator’s personality as it comes through Randon Billings’ Noble’s drawings in “ Accidental Notes on the Syllabus .”

4. The Graphic Essay

Check out the masters of graphic memoir – Maggie McKnight , Riad Sattouf , Alison Bechdel , Marjane Satrapi, Kristen Radtke, Nicole Georges and Ellen Forney – and understand how powerful comics can be as a medium for personal storytelling.

5. The Paper Craft Essay

If you’re wondering what to do with your stockpile of scrapbooking supplies, look no further than Erica’s Trabold’s “ Swedish Rye Bread ”– an essay constructed as a collage of typed index cards, digital scans, the pages of a vintage cookbook, and scrapbooking paper.

6. The Quilted Essay

Quilting has a long history of embodying narrative in carefully chosen patterns, colours, and symbols. Learn more about textile-based narratives in Sarah Minor’s article “ What Quilting and Embroidery Can Teach Us about Narrative Form ” and by reading her visual essay, “ Log Cabin Quilt .”

7. The Schematic Essay

The Process of Becoming Informed is a found schematic essay  published by The Diagram and credited to Michael K. Buckland of Library Services in Theory and Context,  Pergamon Press, 1983. Where might you find a visual essay just waiting to be discovered?

8. The Graphic Hermit Crab

The hermit crab essay appropriates a found text – also known as a “false document” – as a “shell” to protect the vulnerable story it contains. The textual form’s logical progression is visual, in which a found graphic is adopted as the essay’s structure. J. Robert Lennon’s “ Turnabout: A Story Game ” is a graphic hermit crab essay that can be read starting at any point, proceeding in any direction.

9. The Video Essay

Video is a natural medium for personal narrative, and John Breslund is known as a pioneer of the visual essay form. This article includes a Q and A with Bresland and his collaborator, poet and essayist, Eula Biss, with links to some of their groundbreaking work including “Ode to Every Thing.”

10. The Interactive Essay

“Hypertext is spatial in every direction, truly nonsequential—nothing follows by necessity anything else in the essay” write Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola in Tell It Slant . Exemplary interactive hypertext CNF include Dinty W. Moore’s “ Mr. Plimpton’s Revenge: A Google Map Essay ,” Christine Wilks’ “ Fitting the Pattern ” and the work of Eric LeMay .

I hope this survey of the visual essay, in all its weird and wonderfully varied forms, inspires you to try a new approach to telling your stories. No matter your level of skill, experience, or talent with the visual arts, you can start including visuals in your work easily – and to great effect – incorporating images or multi-media collage.

Which visual essay format appeals to you the most? I’d love to hear which visual essays inspire your next project!

  2 comments for “ CRAFT: Let’s Get Graphic: A Look at the Visual Essay by Nicole Breit ”

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ELA Brave and True by Marilyn Yung

Teach Theme with Graphic Essays: The Old Man and the Sea

Here’s how I’ve used graphic essays and what I’ll tweak for next time.

My junior English classes recently read the short story, “In Another Country” by Ernest Hemingway as a follow-up to reading “The Old Man and the Sea.” Because they had just completed a traditional written thematic analysis of the novel, I opted to have them produce a graphic essay instead focused again on a theme revealed in the text.

I’ve assigned graphic essays before at my last school where I asked my eighth-graders to create these at the conclusion of a study of Frederick Douglass’ narrative. Click here for a post about that graphic essay assignment. It was a successful project; however, since it was the first time I had tackled the graphic essay, it left room for improvement. And by the way, that need for improvement always happens, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a new assignment or a tried-and-true one, I always discover things I want to “fix” for next time.

And, of course, our “In Another Country” graphic essays followed that trusty pattern.

Regardless, I’ve decided to write this post about this project based on a short story I wasn’t even sure I wanted to approach with students. In my view, there are other more interesting pieces by Hemingway (think “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,” but now in retrospect, I am SO GLAD I plowed ahead and experienced “In Another Country” with my students because this story is rich with themes and historical context and it paves the way for good discussions about World War I (and by extension World War II), the Lost Generation, the birth of modernism, and even more specifically the influence of avant garde art on writers.

To culminate our reading of “In Another Country,” the graphic essay project was intended to:

• offer my students a break from traditional essay writing;
• help them discuss theme with evidence and their own commentary;
• allow students to discuss symbolism; and
• allow students to get creative and apply their artistic skills.

I found the graphic essay idea a little over a year ago in a post by teacher and author Buffy Hamilton at her blog,  Living in the Layers.  Hamilton’s post references projects created by students at North Atlanta High School, including the graphic essay project created by teacher Casey Christenson. Her students created graphic essays based around Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond .

Last year, I modified my Frederick Douglass graphic essay project to conform itself to a shorter work. Douglass’ narrative runs 175 pages or so depending on the edition you read, and can support a more extensive graphic essay. “In Another Country” is quite short. It covered four pages in our Glencoe Literature textbook.

The only change I did make, however, was to have students use one piece of textual evidence to support their chosen theme instead of three. I like this modification; it compels students to find the absolute best passage from the story instead.

I also allowed students to look outside the story for their symbols, which were to symbolize in some way their chosen theme. This is one detail of the project I may modify next time, but the jury is still out on that one. In short, due to the brevity of the story, there really aren’t that many possibilities for symbols used within the text; however, maybe I need to read the story more closely with that precise need in mind for the next time I plan for this project.

Even so, for this graphic essay, I did scaffold the theme identification process and provided five specific themes from the story that students could explore.

Here are the five specific themes:

• dislocation/being a foreigner
• the technology dilemma (For example, technological progress can both help and harm mankind; the machines of war can be destructive (as in weapons and artillery) but they can also heal (as in the physical therapy “machines” in the story).

Maybe I made this project too easy by providing students with predetermined themes. After all, in our recent essays written for “The Old Man and the Sea,” we read articles that addressed specific themes in that novel. Those articles (here’s my post about those five articles) assisted students in identifying themes within the book to write about. It will be interesting to see how well students are able to notice and discuss themes next year when I have them as seniors. Perhaps at that time I’ll have them recall these two thematic essay projects to jog their memories.

Anyway, I provided them with these five choices for themes and then let them run with it, following the guidelines provided on a printed handout. Here’s a screenshot of the assignment sheet. Here’s a link to the Google doc of this handout.

This project took my students two to three work sessions of thirty to forty minutes each.

I assigned this project on a Friday with about twenty minutes of work time available and scheduled it to be due at the end of class the following Tuesday. After vocabulary bell work and a mini-lesson, students had about thirty to forty minutes on Monday and Tuesday. Looking back on it, two and half class periods were just about right. Most students were able to finish without needing time outside of class; some were finished by the beginning of class Tuesday, which fortunately just happened to be our last day of school before closing for COVID-19.

Overall, I’m satisfied with this project.

Am I happy with the final products? Mostly.

Many of my students are more concerned with getting the project finished quickly, and so could have spent more time on their graphic essays.

Here’s what I would change for next time:

• Have students spend more time developing thesis statements. I provided an example on the sheet as a guide, but many students basically copied it, swapping out the theme provided for theirs, if needed.
• Stipulate that symbols need to be objects and not illustrations. For example, a stick figure drawing is an illustration, not a symbol. I might need to explain the difference: a symbol represents something; an illustration shows something.
• Call for students to add a sentence or two near their symbols that explains the symbol and how it represents the theme discussed.
• Require color and lots of it. While this isn’t an art project, I would still like them to create an interesting, eye-catching layout.
• Require that handwriting be done in pen, i.e. no pencil.

Without further ado, here are the rest of the graphic essays I’ve chosen to include in this post. I’ve included two photos for each of the five themes discussed. These graphic essays below tended to be a representative sample of the quality of work my juniors turned in. See the captions for more thoughts.

Thanks for reading! I haven’t seen students since the day these projects were turned in and, as of the latest, we will be out of school until Tuesday, April 28. This project will seem so far in the past at that time that I doubt if many constructive comments will arise. But that’s one of the downsides of distance learning and the passage of time.

Regardless, have you tried graphic essays with your students let me know of your experience. and follow my blog for a future post about my lack of success — so far, anyway — with the popular one-pager., share this:.

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Published by Marilyn Yung

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3 thoughts on “ Teach Theme with Graphic Essays: The Old Man and the Sea ”

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Extremely interesting. Thank you for giving such an informative blog.

You are welcome! Thanks for reading!

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Graphic Essays and Short Story Collections to Add to Your Comics TBR

Laura Sackton

Laura Sackton is a queer book nerd and freelance writer, known on the internet for loving winter, despising summer, and going overboard with extravagant baking projects. In addition to her work at Book Riot, she reviews for BookPage and AudioFile, and writes a weekly newsletter, Books & Bakes , celebrating queer lit and tasty treats. You can catch her on Instagram shouting about the queer books she loves and sharing photos of the walks she takes in the hills of Western Mass (while listening to audiobooks, of course).

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One of the things I love most about graphic storytelling is the sheer range of styles that are possible. From classic superhero comics to minimalist black-and-white webcomics, from lush watercolor art to quick pen sketches, from long-running series to ten page stand-alones—there is something for everyone. There are graphic memoirs, graphic novels, graphic short stories, graphic essays, and these works come in all genres.

Since I started reading comics in a serious way, I’ve been on a quest to read as many different kinds of graphic art as possible. This has lead me to some wonderful, creative, weird, and fascinating books. I’ve discovered that I love reading graphic essays and short stories as much as their non-graphic counterparts. The art adds an interesting dimension that really enhances short-form storytelling.

Here are five books of graphic essays and graphic short story collections that I’ve enjoyed recently.

How To Be Happy  by eleanor davis

This collection of graphic short stories is weird, wonderful and beautiful. The art is widely varied, from gorgeous, full-color painted spreads to quick pen-and-ink sketches. The stories range from the magical to the mythological to the real. Some are more like parables and others read like literary fiction. There’s a retelling of Adam and Eve, a story about a homecoming in a dystopian future, a realistic story about first love, and so much more. It’s thoughtful, imaginative, and fresh.

Abandon the Old in Tokyo by yoshihiro tatsumi

In Abandon The Old In Tokyo, Tatsumi explores themes of ordinary urban life in post-WWII Japan. It’s a dark, gritty book. The characters are often factory workers and other laborers, unemployed and living in poverty. Sometimes the stories are disturbing, and sometimes they’re just weird. In one story, a man loses his job and watches his life spiral out of control. In another, a man struggles to care for his aging mother. There’s a thread of desperation, loneliness, and alienation that runs through them all. It’s a book about people seeking solace and companionship, and what happens when they cannot find it. These stories weren’t exactly comfortable to read, but I found them captivating and honest. It impossible not to empathize with the characters—everyday people navigating the ups and downs of  urban life.

Toward a Hot Jew by miriam libicki

This collection of graphic essays explores what it means to be Jewish in the modern world—both personally and politically. The essays are a mix of personal narrative, academic, and investigative. Libicki explores her own relationships with Judaism and Israel, and how those relationships have shaped her, and also changed over time. She writes about her time in the Israeli military, the birth of her daughter, being in art school. Throughout the collection, she incorporates the words of many famous thinkers, politicians, philosophers, and authors, which added depth and complexity to the essays. This is a thought-provoking book, one that asks many questions and leaves them open-ended.

We All Wish for Deadly Force by leela corman

This book includes a variety of short comics— memoir, cultural observations, and family history—all of them with gorgeous, haunting art. Corman writes eloquently and heartbreakingly about the death of her infant daughter. Her grief permeates the collection, and is especially poignant in the short, one-page comics about her daughter’s infancy. There are also fascinating comics about bellydancing and bellydancing culture in Egypt and New York and about her grandparents’ life in Poland before the war. The art is extraordinary. I found myself lingering on each page, soaking up the details.

Embroideries by marjane satrapi

While technically considered a memoir, rather than a collection of short comics, Embroideries has the feel of a story collection. Over afternoon tea, Satrapi sits with her mother, grandmother aunt, and their friends, talking and telling stories.

Satrapi collects the stories they tell in this slim volume, which is overflowing with warmth, heart, and the power of and comfort of women gathering together away from the gaze of men. These women tell stories about marriages, both happy and unhappy, about finding freedom in divorce and widowhood, about losing their virginity. There are stories about falling in love, about being hurt and wronged by men, about sex, about affairs they’ve had. The stories are funny, sad, wise, absurd, sometimes serious, sometimes lighthearted. It’s a beautiful book, and though there’s a thread tying it all together, every story also stands on its own.

Do you have any favorite collections of graphic essays and short stories?

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Creative Arts Toolkit

The visual essay, what is it.

A visual essay is a sequence of photographs or other images which are either:

• original, taken and/or created by yourself, or
• found, and significantly processed (e.g. using Photoshop, Illustrator)

Taken together, the images provide a critical commentary of some kind on a defined topic, working as a kind of argument, explanation, discussion. The topic will have been either given to you (e.g. as an essay question) or developed by you in consultation with your tutor.

Usually the ‘reading’ of the images in a visual essay is directed by such elements as:

• the sequence of images and how they relate to each other, the juxtaposition of one to the next and how it stands in a series
• the layout of the page in which the image(s) is placed, and the layout of following and preceding pages
• captions, including brief analyses, quotations, key words, provocative questions or statements;
• text integrated within the image or as part of the image (e.g. playing with typographic elements, the visual aspects of text);
• • a short text at the beginning (prologue, scene setting) and/or end (epilogue, codicil, reflection).

Sounds easy…?

The visual essay is not a soft option. To produce a good visual essay is as demanding as writing a good academic text, and in some ways may be considerably harder to do. Never opt to do a visual essay because you think it will be easier than a ‘normal’ or ‘proper’ essay: this will inevitably lead to poor work. Apart from anything else, the traditional essay – love it or loathe it – is ‘the devil you know’. A visual essay is always something of a risk – but also an exciting possibility, rich with potential. Think carefully about how you will approach it and what you want it to say, do, achieve.

What form should it take?

The visual essay will usually take the form of a bound sequence but might be a series of unbound cards (perhaps ‘shuffled’, with a fixed start- and end-point) if that works better with the ideas being expressed. It may possibly take the form of a PowerPoint slideshow that runs automatically, combining image and text in a meaningful, essay-style sequence.

Remember, visual design and communication are key to the success (or otherwise) of a visual essay: they work as the equivalents of correct layout, accurate spelling, clear sentence construction, and so on, in a traditional academic essay.

How many images should I include? And how many words?

A visual essay needs to be equivalent in study effort, time, and so on, to a piece of traditional academic writing at the same level. This means that there is no ‘cutting corners’ on research/enquiry, organisation, thinking, drafting, ‘writing up’ and managing references and citation.

• Typically, to be equivalent to a 1500 word written essay, a visual essay should comprise 10-12 images, with around 500-700 words of text.
• To be equivalent to a 2000 word written essay, it should include 12-15 images, with around 600-800 words of text.
• To be equivalent to a 4000 word written essay, think in terms of 15-20 images, with 1200-1500 words of text.

Does a visual essay need to be referenced? Does it need a bibliography?

The visual essay must include – or be accompanied by – an annotated bibliography which uses the Harvard or Author-Date system; ‘annotation’ means ‘added notes of comment, evaluation or explanation’.

A visual essay – depending on overall design and how you are using the textual elements – might not formally cite sources, so the annotated bibliography is an absolutely vital part of the academic apparatus. (If you feel that in-text citations are not appropriate to your visual essay, you must get this agreed by your tutor in advance.)

The annotated bibliography has, for each directly relevant source, an entry in the Harvard/Author-Date format, followed by two short commentaries:

• How and why this text was useful to you in carrying out the assignment, what it contributed to your understanding and knowledge,
• How you used it, where in the work it belongs or is used (indicate this in some way)

Some examples and further guidance

Colomba, E. (2016) ‘Reclaiming History: A Visual Essay’. Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art . 38. 196-201.  https://muse.jhu.edu/article/639582  (accessed 5 December 2019)

Gómez Cruz, E. (2019) ‘Black Screens: A Visual Essay on Mobile Screens in the City’.  Visual Communication . 19:1. 1-14.  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1470357219872237  (accessed 5 December 2019) – A lovely example, and recent, but rather wordy for a visual essay!

Roxburgh, M. (2010) ‘Design and the aesthetics of research’. Visual Communication . 9:4. 425-39.  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1470357210385616  (accessed 5 December 2019)

Traverso, A. & Azúa, E. (2013) ‘Paine Memorial: a visual essay’. Social Identities . 19:3-04. 403-9.  https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/doi/full/10.1080/13504630.2013.817634?scroll=top&needAccess=true  (accessed 5 December 2019)

Van Leeuwen, T. (2007) ‘Sound and Vision’. Visual Communication . 6:2. 136-45.  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1470357207077443  (accessed 5 December 2019)

Yagou, A. (2011) ‘Walls of Lisbon: A Visual Essay’. Visual Communication. 10:3. 187-92.  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1470357210382363  (accessed 5 December 2019)

Suggested further reading

Not about Visual Essays as such, but about visual (and physical) thinking:

Brody, N. & Wozencroft, J. (1993) The graphic language of Neville Brody. London: Thames & Hudson.

David Carson Design (the influential graphic designer’s official website) http://www.davidcarsondesign.com   (accessed 5 December 2019)

Carson, D. & Blackwell, L. (1995) The end of print: the graphic design of David Carson. London: Laurence King.

McLuhan, M. & Carson, D. (2003) The Book of Probes. Santa Rosa, CA: Gingko Press.

Tufte, E. (1990) Envisioning Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.

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Using Graphic Organizers for Writing Essays, Summaries and Research

Ask any student – essay writing is one of the most despised tasks of their educational career. Perhaps there is so much displeasure associated with the task because it’s perceived as too linear – there isn’t enough visual and creative appeal. But if you use graphic organizer for writing essays then you can make writing enjoyable – or at least less terrible.

Not only enjoyable but graphic organizers (or diagrams) can make the writing process a snap. They’ll help you think outside the box, draw conclusions you wouldn’t normally observe, and make the entire process faster and more efficient.

Why Use Graphic Organizers for Writing

The phrase “graphic organizer” is just a fancy way of saying “diagram” or “visual aid.” Basically, they are a visual representation of the information you’ve acquired in the research process. There are quite a few reasons why you should use them when writing essays or summaries.

• Helps you visualize your research and how elements connect with each other
• Enhance your essays, summaries and research papers with visual elements
• Track correlations between your thoughts, observations, facts or general ideas

When it comes to essay writing, the most common graphic organizers are webs, mind maps, and concept maps .

Using Webs for Brainstorming

Webbing is a great way to see how various topics are interrelated. This graphic organizer is particularly useful during the brainstorming step of the writing process.

A web can sometimes get a bit messy. Usually, there are lots of arrows to connect overlapping ideas. However, even with lines crisscrossing every which way, it is still a great way to visualize your thoughts. If you’re using an online diagramming software like Creately you can overcome some of this because we automatically arrange the object for you.

Once you’ve created a map to document all your ideas and establish connections, you can easily transition to other forms of diagramming to better organize the information.

For example if you’re writing a research paper about the food web of the Australian bushes you can start creating a food web diagram similar to the one below. This way you can easily visualize the web while writing the paper. This is a simple example but graphic organizers become even more important when the subject gets complex.

Although simple this example shows the importance of using graphic organizers for writing summaries. A comprehensive diagram pretty much does the summation for you.

Using Mind Maps as Graphic Organizers

Mind maps are a great way to depict a hierarchy. What is hierarchical organization ? The concept is simple: a singular topic dominates with each subsequent idea decreasing in importance.

Usually, the mind map starts with the thesis (or main idea) at the center.  From there, you can branch out with your supporting evidence.

Use this process to replace your traditional note taking technique – note cards, outlines, whatever. You’ll quickly realize a mind map is a great way to formulate the structure of your essay. The thing to note here is that the nature of the mind maps force you think about sub topics and how to organize your ideas. And once the ideas are organized writing the essay become very easy.

Above is a mind map of a research proposal. Click on it to see the full image or you can see the fully editable template via this link . As you can see in this mind map the difference areas of the research proposal is highlighted. Similarly when your writing the research paper you can use a mind map to break it down to sub topics. We have more mind map templates for you to get started.

Concept Maps

A concept map will help you visualize the connection between ideas. You can easily see cause and effect – how one concept leads to another. Often times, concept mapping includes the use of short words or phrases to depict the budding relationship between these concepts.

If you look closely you can see that its very similar to a mind map. But a concept maps gives more of a free reign compares to the rigid topic structure of a mind map. I’d say it’s the perfect graphic organizer for writing research papers where you have the license to explore.

By creating a concept map , you can also see how a broad subject can be narrowed down into specific ideas.  This is a great way to counter writers block.  Often, we look at the big picture and fail to see the specifics that lead to it.  Identifying contributing factors and supporting evidence is difficult. But with a concept map, you can easily see how the smaller parts add up to the whole.

Why Bother With Graphic Organizers?

If you already detest the writing process, adding another step might seem insane. However, there really are several advantages of using them.  If you haven’t already accepted the benefits of each individual diagram style, here are some more perks of graphic organizers in general:

• Quality essays are based on detail. No one is going to accept your opinions and reasoning just because you say so. You’ll need proof. And organizing that proof will require attention to detail. Graphic organizers can help you see that detail and how it contributes to the overall concept.
• Graphic organizers are flexible. You don’t need one of those giant pink erasers. You don’t need to restructure your outline. All you have to do is draw a few arrows and bam – the relationship has totally changed.
• No matter what you are writing about, a graphic organizer can help. They can be used to structure an essay on the Great Wall, theoretical physics, or Spanish speaking countries.
• If you write an outline, can you easily see how point A influences point X? Probably not. But if little thought bubble A is sitting out there all by itself, you can visualize the way it ties into point R, T and X.
• Some of us find it difficult to put our opinions, thoughts, and ideas into writing. However, communicating our feelings with little doodles and sketches is far less threatening.
• As a writer, our brain often feels like a 2-year-old’s toy box – a big jumbled mess. Taking that mess and putting it onto paper with some semblance of organization is challenging. Rather than trying to take your thoughts from total chaos to a perfectly structured list, just try to get them out of your brain and onto paper in the form of a diagram.
• A graphic organizer helps you establish validity and relevance. You can easily nix the ideas that don’t support or enhance your thesis.

The next time you are faced with a writing project, take a few minutes to explore the efficiency of graphic organizers. You can find a wealth of templates here.

Have you ever used a graphic organizer to structure an essay? How did it go? Do you have a diagram suggestion for the writing process that wasn’t mentioned here? Let us know!

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Learn How to Write a Visual Analysis Essay: An Ultimate Guide for Beginners

A visual analysis essay is not your typical everyday task, but students taking art history and communication will have to write it in their academic journey. For example, you may be asked to analyze an advertisement, painting, or photograph. How do you decipher hidden messages, cultural nuances, or symbolisms within visual media??

Whether you’ve handled a visual analysis essay before or not, this post will give you fresh and helpful ideas to help you write a winning visual analysis essay. It can seem hard at first, but following the right technique will help you complete it quickly and efficiently. Read on to learn how to write a visual analysis.

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What is a Visual Analysis Essay?

A visual analysis essay is a type of academic writing in which the writer analyses and interprets visual elements in a piece of visual art, such as a sculpture, image, painting, or other visual objects. The essay goes beyond a mere description of the subject to explore the artistic choices of the creator and the effects of the choices on the audience.

The primary goal of a visual analysis essay is to help the reader understand the elements, techniques, and context of the artwork under study. Here’s a detailed list of the purposes of the visual analysis essays:

• To critically analyze artwork or any visual work.
• To discuss the elements of visual display in detail.
• To unfold interesting facts about the artists and art
• Assess the effectiveness of the art/image in current times
• Explain the historical relevance and meaning
• Evaluate existing literature on the subject

To achieve the goals above, students must incorporate different principles and elements of visual analysis. Also, the language used should be clear, descriptive, and simple.

Elements of Visual Analysis Essay

You can’t write a visual analysis essay without mentioning the visual elements of the subject under review. Below are common elements to consider when writing a visual analysis essay:

• Composition — Composition refers to what the main figure is, what the other figures are, how they are placed, and what is missing. Composition is a mandatory element to consider in a visual analysis.
• Elements of design — Usually, artists incorporate various elements of design in their work, such as different sizes, colors, lines, shapes, and other design features.
• Focal point — To write a visual analysis paper, you need to know what the artists used to grab the audience’s attention. To know the focal point, you must understand the main goal of the piece.
• Color — Describe the colors used and how they affect the tone and mood of the art.
• Lines — Consider the actual lines used in the object and how they help grab the audience’s attention towards parts of the art.
• Texture — This is the smoothness or roughness of the object. Consider if it’s real in two-dimensional or three–dimensional art.
• Value — In art education, value refers to how and why the artist has used light and dark aspects in specific parts of their work.
• Shape — What shapes are in the image, and what do they represent ?
• Form — It refers to how the shadows and lights in a piece of art are used to create illusions and colors.
• Size — This is about the overall size of the image. Artists choose a particular size so that you can see what they want you to see better.
• Symbolic elements — If the art represents a certain art history or carries a symbolic meaning, you will need to find it and tell the reader what it means.

Principles of Design in Visual Analysis Essays

To write a winning visual analysis essay, you must also consider the principles of design. The principles help you to identify and explain various aspects of the visual display.

• Balance — Balance is the distribution of visual elements in the art. Consider if the elements have symmetrical, radial, or asymmetrical balance.
• Emphasis — It refers to what draws immediate attention when the audience looks at the art.
• Movement — This refers to the use of objects or symbols repeatedly in a visual display. 
• Pattern — Here, explain the colors of the image and how they affect the art. Discuss if they are dark or light and their impact on the mood.
• Proportion — This principle refers to the realistic relationship between objects in the visual and their comparative link to the art.
• Variety — How has the artist used different elements to influence the audience’s perception of the picture? Explain how different features create a certain mood or meaning.
• Contrast — It refers to opposing elements in the visual. Describe them and tell how they affect the quality of the picture.
• Hierarchy — Hierarchy refers to how people viewing the object can process it to different degrees. The hierarchy depends on color, size, and other elements in the images under review.
• Rhythm — This principle refers to the use of spaces between repetitive elements.  
• Layout — Layout is the way objects and symbols are placed in the piece of art. Explain it in detail.

How to Write a Stellar Visual Analysis Essay Step by Step

Collect all the information you can.

Before you start writing your visual analysis essay, you need to know what the artwork is about and who created it. This step involves collecting as much useful data as you can for your visual analysis. Questions to consider when gathering information for visual analysis essays include:

• What does the artwork represent?
• Who created the piece?
• When and where was the visual work created
• Who was the intended audience?
• Where was the art displayed for the first time?
• What elements are used?

This first step is the most time-consuming and confusing for many students, taking anywhere from several hours to many days. Yet, missing crucial details can lead to a poor paper that won’t impress your readers. If you don’t know where to begin your research or have trouble crafting a high-quality visual analysis paper, just get high-quality essay writing help with a few clicks typing “ write my essay online ” into the search bar. You can find the most-suitable service, like CustomWritings, which will take care of everything for you and help you complete your paper on time. Visit the site to receive all necessary information and talk to an expert who will help you with your assignment.

Describe the object or subject

In the next step, you need to identify what the art depicts. You must summarize all the elements you can observe in the piece. To know the essential elements to search for, ask yourself these questions:

• What does it show?
• What story is the artist trying to tell?
• What characters are in the artwork, and what do they stand for?
• What’s the primary setting?
• What mood does it give off?

Perform detailed analysis of visual elements

Next, you will need to consider the design elements and principles discussed above and perform a detailed analysis of each. This step is another time-consuming part of writing a formal visual analysis essay. You may want to check with a professional essay writer before completing this step to speed up the process. Remember, each visual element is unique and can be interpreted differently by different people. So, don’t copy someone else’s analysis.

Develop a thesis statement

Visual analysis essays typically have a thesis statement that represents the main ideas or interpretation you’ll convey in the essay. Ensure you write a thesis for a visual analysis paper that aligns with what you have observed and analyzed in the previous steps. The elements and principles you pick must support your thesis.

Create an outline

There are many aspects to be discussed in a visual analysis essay. The best way to order them is to follow a five-paragraph format for each discussion. A winning essay should contain the following sections:

• Introduction . This is where you provide background information about the piece and the creator. Include interesting facts that will hook your reader, and highlight the main elements and principles you want to analyze. You will end the paragraph with a thesis statement.   
• The main body . The body section can have 3 or more paragraphs that explore the artwork in detail. Choose the most significant elements you find during your research and discuss how they support your thesis statement. Present all details logically and explain how they relate to each other. Also, add your opinion about the visual argument made by the artist.
• Conclusion . In the last section, mention the key points that strengthen your thesis. Also, reflect on the overall impact of the piece. This section must be well-done and not too short or too long.

Write the essay draft

Follow your outline to write a good essay. When writing the draft, focus on the substance instead of wanting to produce a specific style. Review the first draft by identifying weak points and addressing them to create a high-quality paper.

Visual analysis papers must follow citation guidelines used in academic writing. Include citations of any external sources used in the text. Ensure you follow the correct citation style specific to the assignment guidelines e.g., APA or MLA.

Proofread and edit your essay

Once you’re done writing your essay, proofread and edit it for clarity, coherence, and logical flow. Revise it many times to make sure it is error-free. Also, delete any irrelevant details and confirm that you have cited all sources correctly. If you’re not proficient with editing, you can get fresh eyes from a friend or professional editor.

Things to Keep in Mind When Writing a Visual Analysis Essay

Do not make general claims.

Your visual analysis essay can be subject to criticism from the audience, so don’t make your claims sound like the gospel truth. Another student can have a different visual rhetorical analysis in their essay that also stands. The most important thing is to employ observable elements and principles to justify your claims and strengthen them with secondary sources.  

Avoid using excess information

If your goal is to use the elements and principles to cover the word count, it will be hard to prove the main idea. Choose only the strong features that will help you to drive the point home. Excess information can mislead or confuse the reader.

Select a good topic

The topic is the first thing a reader sees, so make it catchy. A good topic is concise, clear, and informative. You don’t have to get the topic right the first time. Edit it as you proceed with writing until you have an engaging and interesting topic.

Write a catchy introduction

A catchy introduction will hook your readers and make them want to read more of your essay. You can hook your readers using interesting hooks, such as a question, statistic, quote, interesting statement, or metaphor.

Employ a strong visual argument

The way you write your visual analysis essay should leave the reader visualizing the image you’re discussing without seeing it. Use words that bring out strong visual imagery because it adds to the reliability and authenticity of your paper.

Understand the central point of your essay

You must identify and describe the focal point of your piece. Identifying the main idea helps you to understand the meaning of the art and the overall conclusion. Also, your interpretation should convey the correct message you want the reader to know.

Follow instructions

To write a successful visual analysis paper , you must follow the instructor’s guidelines. This includes selecting the recommended visual work, following the required essay structure, applying the correct citation format, and adhering to the recommended word count.

Sample Visual Analysis Essay Topics

• Analyze the symbolism and religious themes in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling.
• Analyze the visual storytelling and cinematography in a memorable film scene from a classic movie.
• What was Pablo’s intention in “Guernica”?
• Generate a written report on social class shown through art.
• What is special about Cleo Award-winning ads?
• Review your favorite movie and analyze the visual arts in it.
• Examine the use of space and perspective in M.C. Escher’s “Relativity.”
• Discuss the controversy surrounding the Monalisa painting
• Impact of ‘“The Last Supper” on religious imagery
• Who was the audience of “The Night Watch”?

Wrapping Up

Writing a visual analysis essay can be intimidating. However, you now have all the information you need to create an outstanding visual analysis essay. Use our guide to successfully create a paper that appreciates the depth of various forms of art.

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How to Use Graphic Organizers to Write Better Essays

Lucid Content

Reading time: about 6 min

If you’re a student, there’s no way around the inevitable: You’re going to have to write essays. Lots of essays. In fact, the five-paragraph essay is so fundamental to the high school curriculum that it’s still used on the ACTs, and knowing how to recognize the organizational structure of essays will help you score higher on the SATs.

Even though it seems like a chore, knowing how to organize and write an essay can have a lasting effect on your life, from getting into a better college to scoring a better job to performing better in that job long after your high school days are over.

Here’s a secret: Using graphic organizers for writing essays can help you write better essays faster. (And don’t count yourself out if you’re an educator—you can offer these tools to help your students succeed.) We’ll show you exactly how to do it.

Why use graphic organizers

When ACT graders or teachers are looking your essay, they’re looking for very specific criteria; essentially, they’re looking at how well you’ve organized your thoughts. Many students don’t take the time to outline their essay structure before writing, and that always means a lower score on a test and a lower grade on the essay in class.

Using a writing template can feel like an unnecessary step in an already complicated process. If you need extra motivation to implement these organizers into your writing routine, consider all of their benefits. Graphic organizers can help you:

• Save time by showing you where each piece of the essay “lives.”
• Have more productive brainstorming sessions, either by yourself or with a group.
• Make connections between ideas and create a more cohesive argument.
• Pinpoint holes in your arguments and either adjust the thesis or find supporting statements.
• Keep track of your research.
• Organize your thoughts and come to interesting, more compelling conclusions.
• Stay in the right direction when you feel lost in a sea of words.
• Manage anxiety by converting the fear of a blank assignment into an action plan with a clear map.

With all those benefits, it’s hard to ignore how useful and vital graphic organizers are to writing. And once you’ve become adept at organizing your thoughts for something like a school essay, you’ll find that skill carries with you throughout your life, whether you’re trying to become a more intelligent debater to negotiate prices. It goes beyond just the essay to becoming a better thinker. And it starts with a simple template.

We’ll walk you through several use cases for graphic organizers and provide templates for you to download and fill in when you’re ready to write.

Brainstorming graphic organizers

Brainstorming is important, not only to come up with ideas for topics but to determine what information you need to include in the essay once you’ve determined your topic. Though many think of brainstorming as just freeflow thinking, brainstorming is most productive when you work within specific parameters.

That’s why essay brainstorming graphic organizers are useful, whether you’re using one to brainstorm on your own or you’re working with a group.

In Lucidchart, our mind map shapes and templates double as brainstorming graphic organizers. Start with an essay prompt as your central shape and then fill in the shapes that branch off your prompt with topic ideas. Alternatively, you can add your selected topic to the center and start brainstorming the different ideas you need to cover in your paper.

When the template is filled in, you’ll have a clear starting point for your essay or research paper.

Research paper graphic organizers

Nothing paralyzes students with fear quite like a research paper. These long-form papers require—as the name implies—quite a bit of research, and their purpose is to teach students how to look for valid sources to support their arguments.

But keeping track of all those sources and tying them into your argument can be tricky. That’s where a research paper graphic organizer can be a student’s greatest ally.

This template lays out the writing process itself. After you come up with a general topic, like “the disappearance of honey bees,” fill in the “Research Paper Topic” box.

Then, start looking for reputable sources (Wikipedia doesn’t count) and use the five sources boxes to hold the most relevant quotes and statistics you find. Using those quotes and statistics, you can then fill out a thesis statement that is supported by the research.

Then, you’ll be able to focus your paragraphs on a single topic each that supports the thesis statement and your overarching argument. After you’ve filled out the template, the backbone of the research paper is complete: All that’s left to do is fill in the spaces between sources and arguments.

5-paragraph essay graphic organizer

When it comes to writing the five-paragraph essay, writing diagrams are key. By using graphic organizers for writing, you’re no longer staring at a giant blank piece of paper with no idea how or where to begin. Your graphic organizer is your map.

Although using writing diagrams may seem time-consuming, the fact is that taking the time to fill a graphic organizer in before writing actually saves time. If there’s a problem with the argument, it will show up on the diagram, or if there’s not enough evidence to support your argument, you’ll know before you’ve wasted time writing the paper. And, as we said before, even if your writing is terrible, if your argument is sound, you’ll still score a decent grade.

Try this 5-paragraph essay template to get you started.

Don’t feel pressured to come up with a compelling title right away. Instead, it’s more important that you come up with a thesis statement that can be supported by three solid arguments. Fill in that thesis statement and your arguments. Then, for each argument, figure out three supporting details to support your case.

That’s it! You’ve got the most essential parts of your 5-paragraph essay completed.

Now, come up with an introduction that sets the stage for your argument and a conclusion that wraps up and restates your thesis and supporting arguments in a compelling way. Now you have a solid plan for your paper and can approach it with confidence.

If you’d like a more linear graphic that exactly follows the structure of the 5-paragraph, use the writing template below and follow the same process.

Visuals, such as graphic organizers for writing, can help you better understand concepts, think creatively, and collaborate with your classmates—and there are plenty of other templates where these came from.

Lucidchart offers hundreds of templates to help you through your studies, including timelines, Venn diagrams, word maps, and more. Sign up for Lucidchart and upgrade to an Educational account for free.

Resources for teachers

Providing graphic resources to students is essential; after all, many of your students will be visual learners, so while you may beautifully explain how the process works, there will be some who won’t understand until they see a template of the essay itself.

Lucidchart has many resources for teachers, from lesson plans to writing templates. While you’re teaching your students how to write essays or research papers, it’s useful to print out the templates and fill them out together (even using a completed template as a separate assignment with a separate grade) so that your students can get a feel for properly filling out graphic organizers before attempting it on their own.

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

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Check out how Annika, a recent English graduate of the University of Michigan, used mind mapping in Lucidchart to develop her honors thesis.

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Comparison and Contrast Guide

About this Interactive

Related resources.

This interactive guide provides an introduction to the basic characteristics and resources that are typically used when students compose comparison and contrast essays. The Comparison and Contrast Guide includes an overview, definitions and examples. The Organizing a Paper section includes details on whole-to-whole (block), point-by-point, and similarities-to-differences structures. In addition, the Guide explains how graphic organizers are used for comparison and contrast, provides tips for using transitions between ideas in comparison and contrast essays, and includes a checklist, which matches an accompanying rubric .

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This interactive tool allows students to create Venn diagrams that contain two or three overlapping circles, enabling them to organize their information logically.

Students explore picture books to identify the characteristics of four types of conflict. They then write about a conflict they have experienced and compare it to a conflict from literature.

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Turning an Essay into an Infographic

 Remediation can be surprising

Remediation is the process of presenting material from one form in another form, such as recording a podcast that narrates the ideas and information from a photo. 

There are infinite ways that remediation can transform one work into another, so for the purposes of clarity, this resource will focus on turning a written text-based essay into a audio-visual product of an infographic.  

Before you jump into creating a new infographic form of your written essay, you need to make plans.  These plans should start with an understanding of what you are being asked to create using what you already have. 

Here are a few questions to consider:

• What were the main ideas of your essay?  What will they be for your infographic?
• How did the written format help you to express your ideas?  How will the infographic help you?
• How did the written format challenge the expression of your ideas?  How will the infographic format challenge you?
• What thoughts and feelings did you intend your writing to elicit from your readers?  What thoughts and feelings do you want to elicit from your viewers?

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Visual Literacy  

As you work to answer the above questions, you may find yourself wondering how to express your written ideas in a visual format.  Explore the resources linked on our Visual Literacy support page .

Here are some important parts of the Design stage:

• Outlining - Creating an outline of the topics and ideas that you want to express in your infographic.  
• Read about outlining your infographic (Venngage)  
• Designing your infographic - Steps 1-4 of the website linked below by infographic maker Venngage details the design process and offers many examples
• How to make an infographic in 5 steps (Venngage)
• Venngage infographic maker

The design process also includes bringing in materials from other sources.  The internet provides access to millions of images, icons, and other resources for your infographic.  Depending on your assignment requirements, you may be allowed or required to use these materials.  Knowing where to find them, as well as the legal and ethical guidelines to using them is vital.  

Learn about copyright, licensing, and usage of other creators' works.

The creation process for your infographic can start like the above image with a pencil to paper.  It can also start at one of the software apps or websites that you can use to create an infographic.  Your software tool can be as simple as PowerPoint or as advanced as Adobe InDesign.  You can start with a blank canvas or use one of the many templates available from the web.  

Keep the Digital Media Suite's resources and tutoring services in mind as you are creating your infographic.  We are available to provide support with the Adobe Creative Cloud suite of programs, as well as offer advice and support as you design and create.

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