Dressig, Lillian
Visual Literacy in Business CDG218
Hazards of Smoking
8 February 2009
Instructor: Ray Schafer
Using Visual Aids to Discuss the Hazards of Smoking
I have chosen to use three types of visual aids to communicate the hazards of smoking. The three visual aids that I chose to work with are symbols and signs, images and groups of images and charts and graphs. I this paper I will discuss how each one works to communicate its message.
The first one I will discuss is symbols and signs. Signs such as the one that says “Smoking Kills” is direct and to the point. Other signs such as the one from the surgeon general are not so direct. It is a warning and a lot of people don’t seem to take that as serious. Signs and symbols can be useful if you use the correctly and by that I mean make sure you know what age group you are trying to communicate to. For example if you show a group of first graders the warning label from a pack of cigarettes they will not understand what they are reading. So you will need to make signs and symbols to fit their age group that way you keep their attention and get your point across.
The second type of visual communication aid that I chose to use is images and groups of images. This is a really good way to get a message across to your audience. Sometimes a picture can say more than what a person can put into a lecture. Also pictures and images can grab a person’s interest. For example with the hazards of smoking, I have an image of a healthy lung and an image of an unhealthy lung. To me that give people a real image of what can happen if they chose to smoke. Most people seem to react better if they can see the end results of their choices that they make. To me this is the best visual communication aid that we have there are so many different ways that you can change up images to fit the group that you are making your presentation to and keep their attention.
The last visual communication aid that I used is...