Geology Prof. Amy Luther on Written & Visual

Professor Amy Luther believes that effective visual communication is a key component to success as a geologist, so choosing to certify in visual communication made perfect sense to her. She chose writing as her second mode for this course for a few reasons. First, students are required to prepare an extensive written research report. Second, she wanted students to understand how writing works in tandem with the visuals they are creating and to realize this requires more intention than simply adding a quick caption to an image. In this course, students learn field photography and sketching, producing 2D and 3D models of formations they document during fieldwork. They also write a report synthesizing peer-reviewed references and original data from their time in the field, and from there Amy teaches them the process of writing accurate, concise and substantive captions that complement the visuals they’ve created.