Keri Epps Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description As a writing instructor dedicated to researching and teaching rhetorical genres, I often struggle with how to facilitate students’ learning of what makes a genre, how it circulates, and who it matters to. In short, designing scaffolded assignments around “genre” has seemed difficult in writing courses at […]
How to Write a _____ Like a _____ Read More »
Heather Shearer Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description Many composition instructors ask students to read drafts aloud during writing workshops because doing so helps writers identify logical gaps, stylistic mishaps, or localized errors they overlook when reading drafts silently. To amplify the writerly knowledge gained from reading drafts aloud, we can extend the read-aloud practice
“Lend Ears!”: Creating Audio Recordings of Final Drafts to Develop Rhetorical Awareness Read More »
Crystal VanKooten Volume 5 Chapter Description Using the metaphor of baking a cake, this chapter offers students in college writing courses two techniques for writing with video, audio, and images: integration and juxtaposition.1 Knowing more about these techniques enables students to approach the analysis and composition of their own and others’ multimodal texts with more
Angela M. Laflen Volume 5 Chapter Description Data stories are multimodal texts that combine data with words and images to tell a story to or make an argument for a particular audience. They are increasingly common in everyday life as technology has resulted in an information explosion. Data often do not make sense unless
Strategies for Analyzing and Composing Data Stories Read More »
Ashley J. Holmes Volume 4 Chapter Description This essay challenges students to use public writing to embrace their role as an “academic citizen” (i.e., someone who takes the writing and research we do in college and puts it to practical and civic use in our communities in the hopes of contributing toward positive social change).
Public Writing for Social Change Read More »
Ann N. Amicucci Volume 4 Chapter Description Many students are frequent users of social media, and it’s important to recognize the rich rhetorical activity that happens on apps like Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. This chapter teaches students how to take rhetorical moves they make on social media and mimic these moves in academic writing,
Four Things Social Media Can Teach You about College Writing—and One Thing It Can’t Read More »
Melanie Gagich Volume 3 Chapter Description This chapter introduces multimodal composing and offers five strategies for creating a multimodal text. The essay begins with a brief review of key terms associated with multimodal composing and provides definitions and examples of the five modes of communication. The first section of the essay also introduces students to
An Introduction to and Strategies for Multimodal Composing Read More »
Jenae Cohn Volume 3 Chapter Description Visuals can dramatically impact our understanding of a rhetorical situation. In a writing class, students do not always think that they will need to be attentive to visuals, but visual information can be a critical component to understanding and analyzing the rhetorical impacts of a multimodal text. This chapter
Understanding Visual Rhetoric Read More »
Michael J. Klein & Kristi L. Shackelford Volume 2 Chapter Description Formatting can be a challenge to teach and learn. This chapter provides you with an overview of how the Modern Language Association (MLA) format choices in typography, spacing, and image placement adhere to the standards of basic design. By understanding the theory the MLA
Beyond Black on White: Document Design and Formatting in the Writing Classroom Read More »
