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Refracting Webtexts: Invention and Design in Composing Multimodal Scholarship

Bahl, Erin Kathleen
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu152418027253518

Abstract Details

2018, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, English.
I examine invention practices in designing “webtext” (multimedia) scholarship to understand more fully how this design takes shape through the twists and turns of the drafting process. I apply a principle of digital making through the use of three digital autoethnographic case studies in conversation with seven authors’ composing narratives to explore the impact “people,” “tools,” and “metaphors” have on developing a webtext’s design. I additionally develop a qualitative analytical approach to narratively synthesize and visually represent changes in drafts across ten months and two terabytes of multimodal composing data. I argue that webtexts help scholars communicate in new ways; develop methodological and presentational research craft; build partnerships across disciplines; and increase access to specialized knowledge. I believe webtext scholarship plays a crucial role toward incorporating all available means of persuasion into contemporary academic information design, and toward valuing multiple modes of communication to increase information access. Chapter 1 introduces my project. Using digital autoethnography, discourse-based interviews, and composing case studies, I map out moments of invention in webtext projects’ designs (with attention to visual, linguistic, spatial, and audio channels), noting these moments’ correspondence with particular invention influences (in terms of people, tools, and metaphors). In Chapter 2, I trace the discussions around autoethnography as an approach to researching writing and digital composing, with a particular emphasis on its affordances for tracking the differences through which a webtext’s design is pulled--and for tracking these differences’ impacts on a webtext’s design as a knowledge-making artifact. In Chapter 3, I argue that scholars should value multiple modes at both analytical and representational levels when composing digital scholarship, thereby making use of all available rhetorical and epistemological resources. In Chapter 4, I suggest that investigating people’s impact on a webtext’s developing design (as a part of its overall performed argument) helps to highlight the social nature of a scholarly argument’s development in a particularly visible way and also furthers understanding of an important influence on how this inscape came into being in the first place. In Chapter 5, I argue that if webtext scholarship’s value lies in its potential to implicitly perform complex arguments through design, examining digital technologies’ abilities to influence design development is crucial for understanding webtexts’ rhetoricity. In Chapter 6, I argue that metaphor is a powerful invention strategy for webtext design that can both generate new ideas and obscure others in the pursuit of creating new knowledge. I suggest investigating metaphor helps open up possibilities for creating and organizing scholarly knowledge in both print and digital environments while recognizing the power these organizations have over the argument as it takes shape.
Jonathan Buehl (Advisor)
Christa Teston (Advisor)
Susan Delagrange (Committee Member)
Dorothy Noyes (Committee Member)
39 p.
Composition; Design; Rhetoric
webtext; invention; design; multimodal; digital scholarship; publishing; people; tools; metaphors; digital composing

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bahl, E. K. (2018). Refracting Webtexts: Invention and Design in Composing Multimodal Scholarship [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu152418027253518

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bahl, Erin. Refracting Webtexts: Invention and Design in Composing Multimodal Scholarship. 2018. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu152418027253518.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bahl, Erin. "Refracting Webtexts: Invention and Design in Composing Multimodal Scholarship." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu152418027253518

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu152418027253518
37
© 2018, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.