Composing across modes: a comparative analysis of adolescents’ multimodal composing processes

ABSTRACT

Although the shift from page to screen has dramatically redefined conceptions of writing, very little is known about how youth compose with multiple modes in digital environments. Integrating multimodality and multiliteracies theoretical frameworks, this comparative case study examined how urban twelfth-grade students collaboratively composed across three multimodal projects when responding to and analyzing literature. Data sources included screen capture and video observations, student design interviews, written reflections, and multimodal products. Findings revealed that multimodal composing was a complex, dynamic, and varied process mediated by the interaction of multiple factors. Students exhibited modal preferences when working with open and flexible digital tools – spending a majority of time working with that particular mode and relying on it to carry the communicative weight of their compositions. The development of multimodal composing timescapes for this study provided new insights into students’ rapid and frequent cross-modal traversals as they worked on their digital projects.

KEYWORDS:

• Multimodality
• processes
• digital literacies
• multimodal composition
• adolescent literacy

Acknowledgements

My deepest thanks to the teacher and students who participated in this study. I am also grateful to Bridget Dalton for her guidance and feedback on earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on Contributor

Blaine E. Smith is an Assistant Professor of Language and Literacy Learning in Multilingual Settings in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Miami. She researches the digital literacy practices of culturally and linguistically diverse adolescents, with special attention to their multimodal composing processes and products.