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SOUNDS WRITE: EMBRACING MULTIMODAL TEXTS AS LITERATE COMPOSITION

Hawkins, Jill Suzanne
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1317006310

Abstract Details

2011, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English.
Multimodal communication theorists and writing scholars have begun urging writing researchers to give increased attention to modes other than the visual. Bezemer and Kress (2008) lament the lack of constructive attempts to “elucidate the effects of the distinctive affordances of different modes and media.” Shankar (2006), focusing on affordances of speech in place of writing, argues that literacy values assigned to writing can be achieved in the domain of the oral and asserts that oral forms might fruitfully be revalued as literate composition. Glynda Hull and Mark Nelson, in their 2005 article, “Locating the Semiotic Power of Multimodality,” reference the tendency to favor print over other modes, then also go on to invite further research into semiotic function of isolated, yet co-present modalities. Their research and analysis of data involving “multimedia digital storytelling” prompts them to call for a reconceptualization of writing—one that embraces multimodality in the composition of texts. Bezemer and Kress (2008), Shankar (2006), and Hull and Nelson (2005) have called for greater attention to the mode of sound, and while some preliminary work along these lines has been done, the discussion on the use of audio in writing classrooms is quite limited. One emerging writing form, the audio essay, uses digital technology to stretch the traditional essay assignment across the two modalities of speech and writing. Although the audio essay is becoming increasingly common in writing classrooms, we as yet know little about how this new form is understood, either by students or by teachers. The goals of this dissertation project are to describe four instances of classroom practice in which a multimodal essay writing assignment foregrounds the mode of sound. The project provides a snapshot of instructor practices at a specific point in time, describing the way four instructors talk with undergraduate writing students about affordances of sound and related principles of composition. It describes writing instructors’ practices of assigning audio essays and ways they present to their writing students a rationale for acquiring multimodal literacy and producing multimodal texts. Using grounded theory, it maps similarities across the four samples seeking to answer the questions: “How do writing instructors present, talk about, and reflect on audio assignments? And what perceived affordances of audio technology are revealed through teachers’ actions, interviews, and documents?
Pamela Takayoshi, PhD (Committee Chair)
Raymond Craig, PhD (Committee Member)
Brian Huot, PhD (Committee Member)
Gene Pendleton, PhD (Committee Member)
Deborah Baurnbaum, PhD (Committee Member)
148 p.
Rhetoric
multimodality; multimodal communication theory; literacy; multiliteracies; sound; audio assignments

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hawkins, J. S. (2011). SOUNDS WRITE: EMBRACING MULTIMODAL TEXTS AS LITERATE COMPOSITION [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1317006310

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hawkins, Jill. SOUNDS WRITE: EMBRACING MULTIMODAL TEXTS AS LITERATE COMPOSITION. 2011. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1317006310.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hawkins, Jill. "SOUNDS WRITE: EMBRACING MULTIMODAL TEXTS AS LITERATE COMPOSITION." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1317006310

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1317006310
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© 2011, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.