Defining multimodal composition

“We must recognize that English Departments no longer sustain culture behind impenetrable walls of print. Culture, the product of our human relations, now produces texts in multiple, often overlapping forms. If it has become acceptable to recognize the work of scholars in English Departments who use cultural studies approaches to texts in everything from film to clothing to museum exhibits, it should be part of an English Department’s mission to regard its students as capable of composing intellectual work in forms other than traditional print essays. And we should also recognize that other disciplines across campus are increasingly moving to multimodal texts in their courses and that our students need to know how to write to learn and write to inform and persuade in these forms as well as they do in print. We need to teach the forms of literacy that are producing the culture on our campuses and in our communities.” — Browyn Williams

 

What is multimodal composition?

Multimodal texts are works that use more than just words and letters to communicate a thought–they may include audio, video, photographs, drawings–basically, any visual element used to supplement the text in some purposeful way. When multimodal texts are viewed, analyzed, and created in the composition classroom, students and instructors are engaging in multimodal composition! Podcasts, blogs, collages, video or audio essays, comic strips, and storyboards all fall under the category of multimodal composition assignments.

 

Why should we integrate multimodal assignments into the Writ 101 curriculum?

In a broad sense, multimodal assignments can help our students develop visual and digital literacy, which is key in a world where new technologies are constantly emerging. As Williams points out in the passage quoted above, our students are already interacting in digital contexts that require multimodal writing. By assigning multimodal projects, we prepare our students to effectively communicate in these contexts.

In terms of our unique Writ 101 curriculum, multimodal assignments such as the digital Life Place Essay can help us achieve several of the Outcomes for College Writing I, particularly:

• Genre: students will see how composing a multimodal text differs from composing a written one & gain familiarity with composing in new genres

• Rhetoric: students will learn key terms & techniques of visual rhetoric, such as juxtaposition, arrangement, framing, point of view, metonymy, and symbolism

• Purpose: students will explore how shifted mediums can affect their approach to engaging their audience–for instances, how might an image be used to appeal to a viewer’s emotion? To enhance a written scene or description?

• Collaboration: students will practice new types of collaborative work as they view and respond to each others’ visual texts

• Process: students will strive to establish an effective process even when composing in new modes through storyboarding & maintaining a Work Log

• Technologies: students will use new technologies, including audio & video software, recording equipment, file-sharing websites, etc., and develop awareness of how these technologies change their composing processes

• Conventions: students will work to understand conventions of multimedia genres