Visual Learning

     Art serves a similar purpose as language. Both are utilized to precisely describe a thought, feeling, or condition in a way that can be easily understood by others. Comic artist Scott McCloud guides his readers through art. Photos and phrases are broken up sequentially to provide a "picture book" effect. This supports basic human comprehension skills, creating visual connections between words and images. McCloud establishes ethos by skillfully combing the two.
     I can recall my struggle learning to read. In kindergarten, I stumbled through letters that looked like meaningless symbols. My mother bought me a case of BOB Books. This was essentially a collection of sight- words that were supported by illustrations. I remember trying read them as my mother pointed to the portraits. Before you know it, I no longer needed my mother's pointing skills-- when I struggled to find the meaning of a word, I used the visual context clues in front of me. Reading became easier for me, however I relied upon photographs to help me along-- almost as training- wheels on a bike. Now that I'm a high school student, I do not read picture books, but I am a visual learner. This means that I prefer diagrams, illustrations, graphs, and charts in order grasp a concept more efficiently (The Visual [Spatial] Learning Style, learning-styles-online.com). A visual learner appreciates the marriage of text and image.
     McCloud portrays a "show and tell" scene. A boy struggles to describe how he transforms his toy robot into an airplane. The story contains 16 panels; 6 of which without words. The story portrays the boy's simplistic communication skills. He cannot express each step he takes, uttering words such as "uh" and vague demonstratives to describe his object. Instead, he shows the class by doing. McCloud's work indicates that words are often not enough. Language can be supported by the most fundamental methods of comprehension such as motion, or picture.
      Mastering language is no easy task; I believe the most efficient way to describe oneself is through a deft combination of many. Scott McCloud does this to establish ethos in his art.