Beavers 1

Christopher Beavers
Dr. Pigg
ENC 4379
2 April 2015
Cultural Constellations: Multimodal Composition and Indigenous Mapping Practices
Introduction
Gloria Anzaldua once wrote that a wild tongue cannot be tamed; it can only be cut out
(128). Writing and composition studies have traditionally typified this sentiment by placing
emphasis on the essay as benchmark for educational achievement. The institutionalization of
writing as the essay perpetuates a system in which persons who hold power and authority make
value judgments about the submission and necessarily the submitter. Oftentimes this judgment is
one of intelligence, capacity, understanding, and ultimately socially comparative value to other
submissions. While benign on the surface, this model homogenizes student ability in a manner
that marginalizes. Writing as a techne is improved upon through praxis, however those whose
writing is deemed subpar are often those who lack economic, social, cultural, and political
capital. That is, students who need an opportunity to write the most are often those who are
discouraged from doing so.
Recently, composition studies and those who teach composition have begun to
incorporate multimodality into their curriculum as a means to de-privilege ways of knowing and
making meaning. Multimodality refers to the use of visual, linguistic, gestural, spatial, and aural
modes of communication (Murray, 9). Multimodal composition challenges composers to think
about the relationship between their conception of an idea or construct and how others might

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conceptualize the same thing. It is useful in preparing information for diverse audiences that
have different educational backgrounds, cultural and literacy practices, and goals than oneself. In
this way multimodal composition as a method of education is a tool that helps deprivilege
knowledge.
Composition Studies and Multimodality
Traditionally, the schism between composition studies between liberal arts colleges and
universities has been analogous to the fields ever-evolving nature. Distinctions between
research universities and liberal arts colleges serve as a point of entry for discussion between
what composition privileges. These distinctions have generally been framed in terms like
research vs. teaching, theory vs. practice, objectivity vs. subjectivity. Eventually, these
association developed hierarchical opposition founded on the privileged institutional status of
research [universities] (Murray, 3). As research universities began to dominate higher education
(in terms of enrollment numbers), composition began to be conceptualized as a means to
professional ends related to research and a tool of method rather than an epistemic activity
itself (Murray, 3). This attitude is reflective of a central issue identified by cultural rhetorics: the
privileging of certain types of knowledge and meaning-making determined by systemically
oppressive power structures. Cultural studies have outlined the privilege of the civilized, rational,
and scientific over the savage, emotional, and narrative. This framework is inherent in the
systems that mandate what composition studies should prioritize.
Multimodal research has been performed in part to combat the aforementioned systems
contributing to prioritizing knowledge bases. While the concept of multimodal compositions is
not a new term, it has struggled to situate itself in core curriculum. Scholars of composition
studies have been negotiating the terms of new understanding based on ideological and cultural

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literacy with emerging media (Selfe, 9). In this way, multimodal compositions share a base
understanding with multiliteracywhich outlines that literacy is not simply textualtraditional
writing and reading words on a page. At its core, multimodality is interdisciplinary and has
been emerging as a means to address questions about society in flux. The canonical modes of
communication are typically conceptualized as visual, aural, gestural, and spatial which are
assumed to always exist in tandem with one another. As such students participating in
multimodal composition are challenged to exploit the potential of the medium. Furthermore,
multimodality makes the assumption that the material world and immaterial discourse is socially
sculpted by different communities.
In practicality, multimodal composition presents several problems with the modern
student. That is, with the ubiquity of technology, students are often prone to think of writing
multimodally as writing digitally. This is not true. Joddy Murray (2009) challenged her students
to create portfolios that featured multimodal work. While some students submitted e-portfolios to
showcase their work, others submitted mosaics from bits of tile. The consideration of such a
project highlights the rhetorical use of concrete modes of communication (59). By assigning
students to compose multimodal pieces, students were able to increase their abilities to navigate
semiotic sources. While some submitted tactile projects most chose to opt for powerpoints or
websites. This highlights a problem in multimodal studies. Alexander and Rhodes (2014) noted
that students, when tasked with composing multimodally, run the risk of merely re-appropriating
material that might be deemed unoriginal despite the quality of content and simple pairing of
modes without any real consideration of why the medium were selected.
Alexander and Rhodes point out the emphasis on multimodality in composition studies is
on the mode of writing and the process of combining modes to construct cohesive argumentation

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(16). Multimodality, then, for the purposes of this piece, is defined as writing that juxtaposes a
variety of modes that seeks to identify how traditional studies have marginalized. It becomes
apparent that having a conversation with students about what "multimodal" or "digital"
composition is just as vital as to having the conversation about "what is the portfolio"? By
encouraging multimodal assignments, students will have an opportunity to further understand
rich historical contexts that allow for different logics.
Case Study of Ethos: Multimodality in the Classroom
Expanding on the tensions between Lloyd Bitzers and Richard Vatzs definitions of the
rhetorical situation, Edbauer (2005) posits that rhetorical situations are bound networks of lived
experiences, structures, and feelings (14). Edbauer repositions the rhetorical elements
traditionally thought of as audience, exigence, and constraints into a wider milieu by observing
the rhetorical ecology of Austin, Texas and discourse surrounding cultural shifts countlessly reappropriated in response to the industrialization of the city (14). Edbauer is able to offer a
critique of the rhetorical situation in which theorists tend to oversimplify discourse in a manner
that is seldom found in physical and material conditions. For Edbauer, an exigence does not
necessarily pre-exist, rather it is an amalgamation of processes and encounters (8). In the
construction of ethos, she argues that place must be characterized as the interactions between
humans and physical condition. Writing about the discipline of composition like Edbauer,
Reynolds focuses on cultural construction of space and discusses them as sites between the
margins. Including classicists like Aristotle, Reynolds proffers a definition of ethos as a
referential to habits of dwelling both in a material and immaterial sense. In writing theory, she
makes moves towards advocating for classrooms as sites and sites of constructing ethos and
socially responsible writers. Furthermore, Reynolds writes that communities can be

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homogenizing constructs that we address without considering individual differences and dissent
(328).
The following theories were the basis for a project that Gabriela Rios had students
develop on multimodal composition connected to cultural rhetorics throught the analysis of
power structures. The premise of the project was based upon the conception of ethos as physical
and material space as well as Krista Ratcliffes call for us to rhetorically listen. For the project,
students were challenged to think about ways in which they embodied the spaces they inhabited
most. A problem in writing studies is that students are often asked to analyze discourses and
rhetorical situations without understanding the ways in which they operate in their own
communities. For the assignment, students were asked to rhetorically listen to how they are
complicit in their own habits of dwelling or ethos. With this in mind, students were asked to
map five spaces they inhabited and somehow relate them to power structures and cultural
practices. The only other requirement was for this to be done multimodally. The project was
intended to be a semester long attempt to better hear the historical processes which shape our
ethos and to value conflict as well as collaboration (Reynolds, 8). The purpose of the project
was highly individualistic, rather than a set format it was meant as a tool to understand where
you are coming from. The following image is a result of this assignment and presents an
interesting opportunity for discussing modes of communication.

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Process Analysis and Implications
Although, appearing to be a glorified exercise in arts and crafts, the assignment engages
students in a series of complex rhetorical practices. While the guidelines of the assignment were
straightforward, the practical approach triggered complex questions of defining and expressing
ones self and compartmentalizing identities. As a student, one is faced with the dual challenge of
synthesizing a personalistic medium of reflective writing that articulates postulations like who I
am and how do these objects represent me with rhetorical reasoning that answers why were
these artifacts selected from a potentially infinite array. The reflection on the process of media
selection is useful in understanding how material spaces represent complex ideas and history.
The in-class presentation of the project produced an additional element of spontaneous
reflection regarding the process of compiling, conveying, and publically presenting the facets of
how a space could be mapped to represent the self. The presentation further stimulated
insightful moments of self-awareness and self-perception, especially when one feels that they
have a stake in the successful representation of their project because they see it not only as a
public demonstration of their work, but also as a display of their personality.The assignment asks
students to reflect on the possibility of found objects acquiring personal meaning through
reasoning and argumentation. Ultimately, the project is about writing through media rather than
writing about media; it strives to assist students in finding a unique voice at a time when the
quest for authenticity and originality appears futile to many of them.
What the project above did was articulate several arguments surrounding multimodality:
you more a versatile and real-world skill set that is applicable outside of college. Ti forced a
remediation between narrative and composition. Culture, the product of our human interaction,
now produces complex and overlapping contexts. This composition shows how multimodal

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assignments provide an opportunity to exploit medium. Through praxis, students are able to gain
insight into multiple ways of knowledge and meaning-making but also to exercise the ability to
navigate wild rhetorical situations that surround them.

Works Cited

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Alexander, Jonathan and Rhodes, Jacqueline. On Multimodality: New Media in Composition
Studies. CCCC/NCTE Studies in Writing & Rhetoric Series (2014): 12-27. Print.
Anzaldua, Gloria. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue." Writing 1: Writing Culture Course Reader
2006-2007. Gail Sytgall. 1st edition. St. Louis: Thomson Publishing Company, 2006.
Deibert, Ronald J. Parchment, Printing, and Hypermedia: Communication in World Order
Transformation. New York: Columbia UP, 1997.
Edbauer, Jenny. Unframing Models of Public Distribution: From Rhetorical Situation to
Rhetorical Ecologies. Rhetoric Society Quarterly; Fall 35.4 (2005): 5-24. Print.
Murray, Joddy. Non-discursive Rhetoric: Image and Affect in Multimodal Composition. SUNY
Press (2009). 1-19, 57-74. Print.
Reynolds, Nedra. Ethos as Location: New Sites for Understanding Discursive Authority.
Rhetoric Review; Spring 11.2 (1993): 325-338. Print.
Selfe, Cynthia L. Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century: The Importance of
Paying Attention. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1999.