Melanie Gagichs An Introduction to and Strategies for Multimodal Composing helps students grasp the idea of writing a multimodal essay. Gagich pushes against the traditional 5-paragraph essay and celebrates the notion of doing it differently. Describing it as “a piece of communication that can take many forms.” She goes through step-by-step how students can do this through five ways of communicating. What an audience can see (visual), how words or language are used (linguistic), spacing (spatial), how you use movement in a speech (gestural), and what you can/cannot hear. Although some of these are referring to a speech, I feel like you can make it fit into an essay or really expand on the other three.
Beyond Black on White: Document Design and Formatting in the Writing Classroom by Michael J. Klein and Kristi L. Shackelford, document design deals with many things. This includes the aesthetic of the page, like how the words look. Are all the fonts the same? Are key ideas written in a text larger than other texts? Are some words in bold? All these choices influence how your document looks and is perceived by your readers. They also discuss how repetition can link ideas and I’m guessing that’s because the reader will see it repeatedly and put two and two together.
To briefly conclude, both of these texts show you how to spice up your essays by using many different mediums. I’ve fallen victim to always trying to write the ‘perfect’ 5-paragraph essay but after reading these and being a part of Friends class, I feel more confident to stray away. Of course, I’ll run into some professors who still abide by this structure but it doesn’t mean my writing always has to.
Leave a Reply