Both enthymemes and visual pedagogy speak to the capacity--and the need--of humans to make a coherent story out of the scraps of information they possess. Three possibilities exist for building on the connection between enthymemes and pictures when teaching argumentative writing--using visual aids to help students: generate material, suggest a structure, and symbolize the finished project. One image of a completed argumentative essay is a "Y Bridge": the claim is a bridge, a crossbar sitting on top of the capital Y. John Gage, in his textbook "The Shape of Reason," presents the enthymeme as a device which helps writers generate arguments by remaining conscious of their audiences. Students then need to decide how to arrange their arguments. To help students recall that they have considerable flexibility in this task, composition teachers can use the analogy of a simple toy--a spindle onto which are dropped a series of brightly colored shapes. In constructing an argument, an arranger must consider the attitudes and knowledge of the onlooker as well as the arranger's own preferences. A device used in creative writing, the mask of the detail monster, can be used with students generating arguments. Students make paper masks with eyeholes and work in pairs; writers read their arguments, listeners raise the mask to ask a question when statements need further elaboration. Visual pedagogy can help students and teachers to design "webs of meaning" as successful as E. B. White's fictional spider Charlotte. (Ten illustrations are included.) (RS)