Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing, this book seems to be first of its kind in composition and rhetoric which is a writing textbook presented in the form of a comic book. The book bids a contradictory message, while it is composed in the form of a comic book, it tries to teach mostly print-based writing. Understanding Rhetoric suggests an interest in textual, visual, and artistic aspects of composing. It lists four authors: two are teachers and scholars in rhetoric and writing (Losh is the director of the Culture, Art, and Technology program at the University of California, San Diego, and Alexander is director of the Center of Excellence in Writing and Communication at the University of California, Irvine); Kevin and Zander Cannon (not related to each other) are established artists and cartoonists. The illustrations and overall approach as a comic book are visually interesting and informative. In terms of structure, the book presents seven chapters, or “Issues” each chapter is color-coded and includes a three-part structure, first section in which the teachers present an issue and “illustrate” it with examples; a second section, titled “Reframe with Luis and Cindy,” in which two imaginary freshman students work through an assignment; and finally, a two-page “assignments” section that proposes a sampling of possible class projects inspired by the chapter’s content.

The main idea is Rhetoric analysis where terms are, Ethos which is the credibility of the speaker, Pathos which is the use of emotion in debate, Logos which is appeal to reason and Kairos which is timing. In the second section, titled “Reframe with Luis and Cindy, when Luis was writing an email for the class that he would miss, he wrote in an insulted manner where he doesn’t mention why he needs to be gone and instead he was implying that her class time might not be important in insulted manner. But later Cindy tells Luis about the rhetorical writing and analyzes all the proper writing for the email he sent which was much better way of writing.