Chances are you already have a great deal of experience with multimodal composition—that is, writing or creating content by combining different types of communication. Much of your experience may come from digital spaces, perhaps even from platforms such as social media that you don’t associate with academics. According to literature examining adolescent and young adult literacy skills, young adults incorporate a great deal of multimodal communication—which includes sound, images, movement, and text—into their everyday lives to express themselves and connect with others. Social media has no doubt hastened the spread of multimodal communication, and its prevalence in the world is unprecedented. Perhaps you have never believed that your experience with digital and multimodal writing connects to academic composition, but indeed it does. Just as technology has changed how people interact with the world, multimodal composition has altered how they create content. In this chapter, you will learn how to combine your experience in creating and using multimodal composition with established writing practices, particularly those used in argumentative writing, to generate connected content that creates meaning.
Multimodal composition begins where any other composition does: with the rhetorical situation, or the circumstance of communication in which one person (the composer) uses communication to influence the perspective of another (the audience). All multimodal compositions are created for a specific time and place and a particular audience who views the world in an explicit and culturally influenced way. As a writer, you make choices based on the rhetorical situation: context, audience, purpose, genre, and culture. You consider the strengths and weaknesses of all the possible means and tools available for reaching your rhetorical goals. By identifying the audience, determining what you need to tell the audience, and analyzing the best way to do that (including which types of media to use), you are empowered to create an effective and targeted composition.
Multimodal composition provides an opportunity for you to develop and practice skills that will translate to future coursework and career opportunities. Creating a multimodal text requires you to demonstrate aptitude in various modes and reflects the requirements for communication skills beyond the academic world. In other words, although multimodal creations may seem to be little more than pictures and captions at times, they must be carefully constructed to be effective. Even the simplest compositions are meticulously planned and executed. Multimodal compositions may include written text, such as blog post text, slideshow text, and website content; image-based content, such as infographics and photo essays; or audiovisual content, including podcasts, public service announcements, and videos.
Multimodal composition is especially important in a 21st-century world where communication must represent and transfer across cultural contexts. Because using multiple modes helps a writer make meaning in different channels (media that communicate a message), the availability of different modes is especially important to help you make yourself understood as an author. In academic settings, multimodal content creation increases engagement, improves equity, and helps prepare you to be a global citizen. The same is true for your readers. Multimodal composition is important in addressing and supporting cultural and linguistic diversity. Modes are shaped by social, cultural, and historic factors, all of which influence their use and impact in communication. And it isn’t just readers who benefit from multimodal composition. Combining a variety of modes allows you as a composer to connect to your own lived experiences—the representation of experiences and choices that you have faced in your own life—and helps you develop a unique voice, thus leveraging your knowledge and experiences.
Adapted from:
"Mixing Genres and Modes" from Writing Guide with Handbook. Authors: by Michelle Bachelor Robinson, Maria Jerskey, featuring Toby Fulwiler. Publisher: OpenStax. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).