What is multimodality?
While there might be some confusion about what the term multimodal means, most writers know what it is and how to use it. To define it according to digital media scholar Cynthia Selfe, modalities are “visual, audio, gestural, spatial, or linguistic means of creating meaning.” A multimodal text, then, is a document that is composed of two or more modalities that contribute to its overall meaning. For example, a document that pairs written text with images could be considered a multimodal text. Other elements including the layout of the text and images, the size of the images, the length of the text, and even the color of the text all add more layers of multimodality to the document.
In some ways, all texts can be seen as multimodal—they at least contain written text on some sort of medium (a Word document, a blog post, a torn-off scrap of paper.) But, that’s an argument for another blog post.
The purpose of this blog post is to share the beginnings of a collection of resources that writers can use to develop multimodal texts. This may be useful for writers working on multimodal documents and also for tutors who may collaborate with writers on their multimodal texts. While this list of resources is certainly not exhaustive, each hyperlinked resource provides a new way for writers to incorporate multimodality into their documents.
By understanding what multimodality is, tutors can start to understand what makes an effective multimodal text. Then, tutors can work with writers to make rhetorically powerful choices through multimodality.
Comment below your favorite resource to craft multimodal texts so we can add it to this post!
Resources
Images
- Unsplash: Free curated photos for commercial and non-commercial uses
- Pixabay: Royalty-free stock photos
- Pexels: Free stock photos
- PD Photos: High-quality photos free for re-use
Visuals
- Create infographics using free websites like Piktochart, Canva, or vEngage
- Explore custom mapping tools such as Google Maps or Scribble Maps
- Use mind map applications such as MindMeister or GoConqr
- Try a word cloud on Wordle or WordItOut
Audio
- Embed audio from YouTube
- Use royalty-free music collected at Free Music Archive or Incompetech
- Create your own audio recordings through video or audio recording applications such as Audacity
Video
- Embed videos from YouTube
- Incorporate gifs from sites including GIPHY and Imgur
- Make a Screencast video through Screencast-O-Matic
Linguistic
Consider some of the following composing choices for the written text of a multimodal document:
- Font type
- Font size
- Line Spacing
- Margins
- Color
- Paragraphs
- Alignment
- Layout and organization
- Size of page
- Line length
Sources: