This artifact was composed for ENG 3050 Fall 2025 under the instruction of Dr. Sladky. The assignment, titled The Available Means Infographic, required students to conduct a multimodal rhetorical analysis of a historical female rhetor and present that analysis in the form of a visually designed infographic. My specific project, Sanctified Defiance: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz; La Respuesta Infographic, examined Sor Juana’s rhetorical strategies in La Respuesta and translated that analysis into a cohesive multimodal format. The purpose of the assignment was not only to demonstrate an understanding of classical rhetorical concepts, but also to apply them through visual rhetoric, design principles, and the strategic condensation of information.

The intended audience for this project was primarily my professor and classmates, but it was also framed with a broader educated readership in mind, particularly individuals interested in rhetoric, women’s studies, theology, and intellectual history. Because the genre was an infographic, the piece required accessibility and clarity while still maintaining analytical rigor. As a multimodal rhetorical analysis, it blended textual explanation with visual hierarchy, layout design, and selective emphasis in order to communicate complex ideas efficiently.

I selected this artifact for my portfolio because it represents both intellectual curiosity and rhetorical growth. As a Catholic woman, I found the study of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz deeply compelling. Her bold defense of women’s intellectual authority within the Church challenged my assumptions about the historical limits placed on female voices in religious spaces. Engaging her work pushed me to consider rhetoric not only as an academic discipline but as a practice shaped by power, gender, and faith. This project reflects my commitment to examining rhetoric in spaces not traditionally studied in mainstream discourse and demonstrates my willingness to interrogate institutional narratives. 

The infographic’s primary strengths lie in its depth of research, its organizational cohesion, and its analytical focus. Despite the spatial limitations of the genre, the project carefully contextualizes Sor Juana’s historical moment, identifies her rhetorical strategies, and situates her within broader conversations about ethos, authority, and intellectual resistance. The design maintains a clear visual progression, and the argument remains conceptually unified under the theme of “sanctified defiance.”

However, the original version revealed a challenge I had not yet fully mastered, which was restraint. The assignment required a depth of information, and I struggled to minimize the text’s density in favor of visual rhetoric. As a result, the infographic was slightly overwhelming to the reader. In revising it for this portfolio, I simplified language, condensed explanations, and prioritized clarity over exhaustive detail. This process reflects my growing awareness that effective rhetoric depends not only on what is said, but on what is intentionally omitted.

If I were to continue revising this project, I would likely transform it into a chronological slideshow format similar to my earlier artifact, Conquering the “Other.” Sor Juana’s intellectual and spiritual journey unfolds narratively, and a sequential medium would allow her story to develop at a steady pace. An infographic compresses time and complexity into a single visual field, which may not fully honor the progression of her argument in La Respuesta. Nonetheless, I chose to include this piece in my portfolio because it evidences a significant moment in my development as a rhetorician: it forced me to confront the discipline of brevity, to think critically about multimodal composition, and to refine how I balance analytical depth with audience perception.