The use of visuals in the writing classroom asks students to engage in deep acts of composition as they translate what they know about words, texts and ideas into images. Visual assignments have the potential to draw students into traditional acts of composition such as invention, arrangement, style, and delivery. They get them to think deeply about their rhetorical situation – their purposes, audiences, and subjects. Although many recent classroom methods concentrate on the analysis of visual images, I like to extend that to include the production of visuals in conjunction with the written word. For each of the subjects students take on in writing, they complete an accompanying image assignment that encourages them question the ways they see the world around them through visual and textual analysis of their personal, social and cultural experiences. The sequence involves them in photo assignments where they are either composing their own pictures or working with artifacts and found images on the Internet. This type of assignment does not require advanced photo equipment. I have students take their pictures on disposable digital cameras (available everywhere) and have them developed onto a CD Rom so they can print and reuse them at different times during the course. The following assignment on Ethnic Identity is one example from this sequence. I have found that college writers often struggle with issues of identity. Several chapters in Seeing & Writing (4, 5, 6) deal with the ways our identity is constructed through image and self reflection. I try to get students to understand that identity is both function of how we see ourselves and how we are seen by others. This is particularly true when students look specifically at ethnic identity. Although some students are immediately able to identify with a particular ethnic identity many feel that they have no sense of ethnicity especially if they are not from a minority group or a country outside of the United States. However, this assignment asks them to broaden their definitions and recognize that ethnicity is influenced through factors such as language, family background, regional location, artifacts, stereotypes and media depictions. Reading and Invention. I start by asking students to read, annotate, and review the introduction to “Examining Identity,� three readings of their own choosing, and all of the images int eh chapter. Once they have completed their reading they respond in writing to the following quotation: “Ethnicity is a word used to describe human difference in terms of shared values, beliefs, culture, tradition, language, and social behavior. . . Ethnicity, like race, is a cultural construction rather than a biological attribute." Using this definition from the book, have students list the ways their ethnic identity is formed. They should list as many examples as possible under the categories described in the quotation (values, belief, culture, tradition, language, social behavior). They can use this exercise to identify and explore their sense of ethnic identity and the ways it is shaped through cultural artifacts, icons, and media depictions. Images and Artifacts. Ethnic identity is represented through a multitude of images. Students might associate their ethnicity with food, rituals, clothing, appearance or family heirlooms. Upon closer observation they can recognize that their surroundings are full of images and artifacts that somehow represent their ethnicity. For this image assignment I ask them to take 10 digital pictures and/or find 10 images on the Internet that somehow represent their ethnic identity (they can also collect and present tangible artifacts to the class). The goal here is to get them to understand the concept of representation through images, artifacts and objects. Writing Assignment. Once they have completed the invention portions of the assignment they can move to a more extended writing in which they explore their ethnic identity. Have them refer back to or incorporate items from their lists and images/artifacts. Encourage them to comment on the ways that identity is constructed through both internal and external factors as evidenced through their invention work.