ENG101 Chapter 20 Strategies for Composing Multimodal Texts Journal Entry you must briefly state the main idea of the written piece and then respond to it

ENG101 Chapter 20 Strategies for Composing Multimodal Texts Journal Entry you must briefly state the main idea of the written piece and then respond to it critically with your ideas of agreement, disagreements, where you think you learned something new, where your ideas were challenged, informed, corrected etc. You can discuss how you think the writer gets it right, where you think he or she falls short. A good quality response will usually be two thirds of a page or more. stick with one page maximum please. Anything that looks like a short paragraph or less is not an entry that demonstrates adequate or good engagement. I have attached the required material. tive at
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Chapter 20
Strategies for
Composing
Multimodal Texts
school’s n
widen the
brochures
T-shirts en
Of coi
upload
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Learning Objectives
In all
cally abot
mon aim
analyze/
of multir
effective
nation. T
20.1 Consider a range of multimodal options for accomplishing your
rhetorical purpose.
20.2 Design multimodal texts so that each mode contributes its own
strengths to the message.
20.3 Design multimodal texts in a variety of genres, including posters,
speeches with visual aids, podcasts, and videos.
with mul
Table
Rhetoric
Express
This chapter gives practical advice for composing multimodal texts. As we
explained in Chapter 5, a multimodal text uses two or more “modalities” of
communication by combining words, images, and sounds. Multimodal produc-
tions can be low tech (a speech with a flip chart for visual aids), medium tech
(graphs or photographs embedded into a written text), or high tech (Web sites,
videos, podcasts, desktop-published posters or brochures). It is beyond this
text’s scope to explain the technological aspects of digital productions. However
,
many digitally native students already possess technological know-how, and
many institutions provide instruction and backup support for multimodal proj-
ects. Our purpose in this chapter is to offer rhetorical advice on how to make
your multimodal texts as effective as possible for your targeted audience.
Explore
Inform
Analyze
Skill 20.1: Consider a range of
Persua
multimodal options for accomplishing
Reflect
your rhetorical purpose
20.1 Consider a range of multimodal options for accomplishing your
rhetorical purpose.
*Pechaku
One way to appreciate the power of multimedia texts is to imagine how a writ-
ten text might be transformed or remixed to reach different audiences in different
r
Strategies for Composing Multimodal Texts 425
ways. Suppose, for example, that you have written an autobiographical narra-
tive about your recovery from an accident when you were in the eighth grade.
relevant and evocative photographs from this period. If you do, you can choose
Text
upload
That essay might reach a wider audience if you transformed it into a podcast
and posted a link to it on your Facebook page or blog. Perhaps you also have
to create a video screencast combining your photographs with a voice-over nar-
rative
. You could enhance both the podcast and the screencast with music. Or,
to take another example, suppose you have written an op-ed piece for your
school’s newspaper taking a stand on a controversial campus issue. You might
widen the reach of your argument through a campaign that includes posters or
brochures, a speech supported with PowerPoint or Prezi slides, and a batch of
T-shirts emblazoned with your message in a verbal/visual design.
Of course, not all multimedia texts start off as written arguments. You might
a funny video to YouTube purely for its entertainment value, or you
might post on Flickr a slideshow, set to music, of beautiful photographs of flow-
ers just for their aesthetic or inspirational appeal.
In all cases, when you design a multimodal text, you should think rhetori-
cally about your audience and purpose. In Concept 3.2, we identified six com-
mon aims or purposes for written texts: to express, to explore, to inform, to
analyze/synthesize, to persuade, and to reflect. Table 20.1 provides examples
of multimodal texts designed for these aims. As the table suggests, designing
effective multimodal texts requires both purposeful thinking and creative imagi-
nation. There is lots of room for trial and error (and fun) when you experiment
with multimodal texts.
s for comme
ode contributes
genres, including
videos
Table 20.1 Rhetorical Purposes and Multimodal Texts
ng multimodales
Subject Matter/Focus of Writing
Possible Multimodal Forms
Rhetorical Aim
wo or more imper
Personal story narrated as a podcast or a video
with images
ounds Multimé
Express
| Visual aids) and
Explore
xt) or highted
ochures). Itiste
iltaandete
inologialla
pport for me
Inform
You share aspects of your life; you invite your audi-
ence to walk in your shoes, to experience your
insights.
You take your audience on your own intellectual
journey by showing your inquiry process (raising
A podcast or video that includes interviews with
questions, seeking evidence, considering alternative
experts who progressively expand your thinking
views).
You bring to your audience factual knowledge
addressing a reader’s need or curiosity.
An informative poster; a report with graphics; a col-
laborative wiki article; a how-to video
You provide your audience with deeper insights
The text of a poem with marginal drawings that
by breaking an artifact or phenomenon into parts
illustrate metaphors; an audioguide analyzing a
and putting them together in new ways for greater museum exhibit
understanding.
You try to convince your audience, who may not
Advocacy poster, podcast, or video; persuasive
share your values and beliefs, to accept your stance speech with PowerPoint or Prezi slides
on an issue.
You look back retrospectively on an experience or
journey and bring to your audience your evaluation
A collage of photographs, arranged in a way that
represents retrospective thinking about value or
of its significance or meaning.
meaning; same collage done as a pechakucha
presentation*
al advice and
Analyze/ Synthesize
Persuade
Reflect
10
spiro
*Pechakucha presentations are discussed later in this chapter.
but actually he
the words she
edit
looking
MOU 12
ƏM Teyl 250
6 Chapter 20
For Writing and Discussion
Thinking about Your Purpose and Audience
Individually: If you are planning to design a multimodal text, consider your answers to the following questions:
1. What will be the content or subject matter of your text?
2. What is your purpose? Use Table 20.1 to identify and explain your rhetorical aims.
3. Who is your intended audience, and what genre or medium will you use to reach them?
groups or as a class: Share your answers to these questions.
Mes she was
While the child loc
Fof Peter’s being ch.
sp disconnect betwee
when the various r
MOTION OF IMAGI
el processing ima
extensively on im
then more fully in
pers, insights tha
In small
ressing part of ou
sal-processing pa
usand words”). A
Skill 20.2: Design multimodal texts so
that each mode contributes its own
strengths to the message
sene or symbol
ations and values
directly to our v
The creative cha
till visually th
limodal text (sa
Hoon
, graphic n
animations, gra
signs to show re
kat diagrams w
20.2 Design multimodal texts so that each mode contributes its own
strengths to the message.
The main point of this lesson is intuitively simple: The various elements of a
multimodal text should work together to send the same message. In a podcast,
the music should match the content. In a poster, the words should reinforce the
point of the images. In a PowerPoint presentation, the slide on the screen should
match the speaker’s current point and reinforce it through the visual channel.
However, many PowerPoint users—perhaps inspired by the creative possibili-
ties of the technology-produce slides that distract listeners, causing them to
multitask. Either the slide has an image that doesn’t match what the speaker is
saying, or it has densely packed words that force the viewer to read the slide and
listen to the speaker at the same time. “Hey,” you want to shout at the speaker,
“shut up a minute and let me figure out your slide.” In the language of cognitive
psychologists, the audience experiences cognitive overload-bombarded simulta-
neously by the speaker’s message through the ears and by the slide’s message
through the
eyes.
If these are not in sync, the multimodal message fails.
UNCTION OF
irds are often
e open-ende
multimodal text
oing the aud
m a “nutshe
ssage. This
I
atement serv
ample the
angers of un
This Design Principle at Work in Successful
Multimodal Texts
Let’s consider some examples of successful multimodal texts, starting with chil-
dren’s picture books. For many children, their first introduction to multimodal
texts comes from being read to while snuggled in a parent’s lap. As the child
listens to the story of Peter Rabbit, he or she enjoys the pictures, page by page,
watching Peter wander into Mr. MacGregor’s garden, hide in the watering can,
and eventually end up drinking his chamomile tea. Picture books show how our
brains can process both auditory information (the story) and visual information
(the pictures) at the same time. Some children’s books (such as Pat the Bunny)
The post
his face, F
age is conve
the verb
even
But now
imagine how we might create cognitive dissonance for the child.
pictures she was
Strategies for Composing Multimodal Texts –
the bunny and feel its cotton-soft ears.
introduce a third communication channel-touch. The child can both see
Suppose that we told the child the story of Peter Rabbit (which we had memo-
rized), but actually held in our laps the picture book about Jemima Puddleduck.
Suddenly the words she was hearing about Peter Rabbit would not match the
While the child looked at Peter drinking his chamomile tea, we told the
by the disconnect between the auditory channel processing words and the visual
only when the various modes are in sync.
looking at. Or suppose we told the Peter Rabbit story out of
channel processing images. Our point is that multimodal texts work successfully
lodal textss
e
utes its om
e contributes its own
rely extensively on
FUNCTION OF IMAGES IN A MULTIMODAL TEXT Many multimodal texts
images. We examined the power of images in Concept 5.3
and then more fully in Chapter 10 on visual rhetoric. As we explained in these
chapters, insights that need to be built up slowly through words in the verbal-
processing part of our brains might be grasped almost instantaneously in the
visual-processing part of our brains (hence the saying “A picture is worth a
thousand words”). An effective image condenses an argument into a memora-
ble scene or symbol that is understandable at a glance and taps deeply into our
emotions and values. Images make implicit arguments (logos) while also appeal-
ing directly to our values and emotions (pathos).
The creative challenge of multimodal composing is to find or design images
that tell visually the same story that the words tell verbally. Typical images in a
multimodal text (say a poster, brochure, advocacy ad, Web page, PowerPoint slide,
cartoon, graphic novel, or video) include still or moving photographs, drawings
or animations, graphs, charts, maps, or words arranged in meaningful nonlinear
designs to show relationships-for example, as components of flow charts, cause-
effect diagrams with arrows, circle diagrams showing processes, and so forth.
le: The various eleme
same message. Inap
e words should reint
he slide on the screens
t match what these
viewer to read thes
ant to shout at they
n the language de
load-bombardal
und by the slides
dal message til
through the visult
red by the creativega
t listeners
, causing
FUNCTION OF WORDS IN A MULTIMODAL TEXT In multimodal texts,
words are often used to clarify and focus the point of an image. Because images
have open-ended or multiple, ambiguous interpretive possibilities, designers of
multimodal texts often use words to crystallize the intended meaning, thereby
shaping the audience’s response. Key words in a successful multimodal text often
form a “nutshell statement” that identifies and drives home the text’s take-away
message. This nutshell serves the same function for a multimodal text as a thesis
statement serves for an essay or a topic sentence for a paragraph. Consider as an
example the classic World War II poster alerting soldiers in jungle warfare to the
dangers of unsafe drinking water (see Figure 5.6, reproduced here in thumbnail).
The poster shows a soldier, a canteen cup in his hand and a look of horror
on his face, peering into a pond in search of drinking water. The poster’s mes-
sage is conveyed visually by the reflection of the soldier’s face transfigured into
a skulla
-a powerful appeal to pathos
. But the same message is also conveyed
in the verbal channel through the words: “BEWARE … Drink Only Approved
Water. Never give a germ a break.” The words, which appeal primarily to logos,
serve as a nutshell for the whole argument, making the poster’s message unmis-
takably clear. But note how the words themselves also register in the visual
channel through the effect of layout and font size. In the top half of the poster,
Iccessful
deats Start
oduction to
irent slapta
pictures,
fe in the
Wo
can cau
0
the large-font, all-caps “BEWARE” seems to shout a warning to the soldier. In
the bottom half of the poster, the text next to the skull—“Drink Only Approved
Water” —uses a smaller font and a calm sentence to convey the poster’s take-
away message. Finally, the words along the bottom border of the poster (“Never
Give a Germ a Break!”) in yet a different font offer a cause-and-effect explana-
tion of why the water might kill you. Although the images alone convey the
message at a glance, the poster’s full punch comes when we register the
ment in both the visual and verbal parts of our brains.
argu-
This glacier
Global war
DUAL CHANNEL EFFECT OF WORDS AND IMAGES As cognitive scientists
researching multimodal learning have shown, multimodal texts achieve their
power by combining the strengths of two or more modes of communication.
Because each mode or channel is processed in a different area of the brain, each
mode contributes its own strengths to the message. This dual-channel effect can
be seen in a wide range of multimodal texts. As we have suggested, an effective
visual/verbal multimodal text typically has a nutshell claim that summarizes the
text’s takeaway message combined with images that support the claim through
a visual channel. The location of the nutshell claim can vary depending on the
design of the text, and it can be emphasized by font size, location on the
page,
or other means. Table 20.2 shows examples from multimodal posters in this text.
Stop weari
a culture.
3
NOT
OKAY
(Full argum
displays in
even racist
EFFECT OF SOUNDS IN A MULTIMODAL TEXT Because a print textbook can’t
accommodate sounds or moving images, our examples have focused primarily on
multimodal print genres combining words and images. But sounds can also be a
powerful channel for multimedia compositions, particularly the voice qualities in
speeches, podcasts, or videos as well as the special powers of music. In our example
of a child listening to Peter Rabbit, the parent’s voice coming through the auditory
channel is simultaneously an auditory experience and a word/verbal experience.
The child sees both the pictures of Peter Rabbit and also the words on the page-
an important first step in the process of learning to read. A PowerPoint presenta-
tion similarly provides words through both an auditory channel (the speech) but
also a visual channel (words and images on a slide). In short, the sounds in multi-
modal compositions can range from the language-centered employment of voice
to nonlanguage sounds such as street noise, animal sounds, drums, music, and
other sounds with powerful emotional and associational effects.
If que 10.11)
Teach you
bystande
(Full argur
time, pare
to it.)
Using This Design Principle to Revise a Jumbled
Multimodal Text
Let’s contrast effective multimodal texts with a jumbled one, in this case the “first
draft” of a PowerPoint slide developed by student writer Joyce Keeley for an oral
presentation of her research on the plight of African refugees (Figure 20.1). It is
not quite clear what the function or focus of the slide is. The whole slide seems
to be about “Life of a Refugee,” but it doesn’t make a nutshell claim or assertion.
The audience might ask, “What point is this slide making about the life of a refu-
gee?” The top right photograph of a refugee camp seems to make the claim that
the life of a refugee is harsh or dismal. But it is uncertain what the other photo-
graphs are doing. The top left photo shows refugees being loaded into the back of
a truck, while the bottom photo looks like an aerial view of a city, with no appar-
ent connection to the life of a refugee. Additionally, none of the images seems
to the bulleted list
opportunity, vi
and naturalization

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