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Toward a Composition Made Whole
To many academics, composition still represents typewritten texts on 8.5” x 11” pages that follow rote argumentative guidelines. In Toward a Composition Made Whole, Jody Shipka views composition as an act of communication that can be expressed through any number of media and as a path to meaning-making. Her study offers an in-depth examination of multimodality via the processes, values, structures, and semiotic practices people employ everyday to compose and communicate their thoughts.
Shipka counters current associations that equate multimodality only with computer, digitized, or screen-mediated texts, which are often self-limiting. She stretches the boundaries of composition to include a hybridization of aural, visual, and written forms. Shipka analyzes the work of current scholars in multimodality and combines this with recent writing theory to create her own teaching framework. Among her methods, Shipka employs process-oriented reflection and a statement of goals and choices to prepare students to compose using various media in ways that spur their rhetorical and material awareness. They are encouraged to produce unusual text forms while also learning to understand the composition process as a whole. Shipka presents several case studies of students working in multimodal composition and explains the strategies, tools, and spaces they employ. She then offers methods to critically assess multimodal writing projects.
Toward a Composition Made Whole challenges theorists and compositionists to further investigate communication practices and broaden the scope of writing to include all composing methods. While Shipka views writing as crucial to discourse, she challenges us to always consider the various purposes that writing serves.
Shipka counters current associations that equate multimodality only with computer, digitized, or screen-mediated texts, which are often self-limiting. She stretches the boundaries of composition to include a hybridization of aural, visual, and written forms. Shipka analyzes the work of current scholars in multimodality and combines this with recent writing theory to create her own teaching framework. Among her methods, Shipka employs process-oriented reflection and a statement of goals and choices to prepare students to compose using various media in ways that spur their rhetorical and material awareness. They are encouraged to produce unusual text forms while also learning to understand the composition process as a whole. Shipka presents several case studies of students working in multimodal composition and explains the strategies, tools, and spaces they employ. She then offers methods to critically assess multimodal writing projects.
Toward a Composition Made Whole challenges theorists and compositionists to further investigate communication practices and broaden the scope of writing to include all composing methods. While Shipka views writing as crucial to discourse, she challenges us to always consider the various purposes that writing serves.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 18, 2016
This book has really transformed my manner of thinking about composition for the better. I feel a greater sense of possibility for the discipline and wish this book was available in palm-size form to do some kind evangelizing.
If Shipka is looking for acolytes, sign me up. I'll be a Shipkaist until a better means come my way. I think she'd be cool with that.
If Shipka is looking for acolytes, sign me up. I'll be a Shipkaist until a better means come my way. I think she'd be cool with that.
March 31, 2016
I teach multimodal writing and am studying it as part of a PhD as well. So I've read a lot about it. I didn't find this book "new" in any way. I enjoyed the history at the beginning, especially the part about focusing on process. And I agree with her premise that we need to broaden our conception of composition.
On the other hand, I really disliked the examples of assignments she gave. It seems to me that the two case studies she shares are projects that illuminate how "frustrated" (I believe the student used that word) and disgruntled the students are about the assignment. The students whose work she chose clearly disliked her assignment, so it's really odd that she chose those. I read the assignment pretty carefully, and I, too, found it very confusing. And it didn't need to be so ambiguous.
I also really disagree with her argument that all alphabetic text that students produce while creating a multimodal project is the type of writing that we teach in composition courses. Yes, literally it IS writing, but the critics who claim that by teaching multimodal comp we are not teaching writing are not going to be satisfied with that argument. And I'm not satisfied with it either. Taking notes or writing a paragraph here and there is not the writing that college students find challenging. In my opinion, students already know how to write effectively when they are writing to communicate a short idea. What they struggle with is developing an argument and sustaining an idea over a number of pages. And that is what I think critics mean when they say that we are teaching multimodal comp rather than writing. They mean the longer sustained type of writing that often doesn't occur if we teach multimodal projects.
Last but not least, I didn't like her writing style. Her "Mediated Action Framework" is just a fancy name for a very basic principle that she makes way more complicated than necessary: all kinds of media have a rhetorical situation and meaning. True. And it seems to me that this is really her whole point, yet she makes it in a really convoluted manner.
Overall, I just didn't see anything really new here. I know it's five years old, but I feel I should learn something new when I read a whole book, regardless of how much I already know. And I did learn a lot in the process part at the beginning, but after that, not so much.
On the other hand, I really disliked the examples of assignments she gave. It seems to me that the two case studies she shares are projects that illuminate how "frustrated" (I believe the student used that word) and disgruntled the students are about the assignment. The students whose work she chose clearly disliked her assignment, so it's really odd that she chose those. I read the assignment pretty carefully, and I, too, found it very confusing. And it didn't need to be so ambiguous.
I also really disagree with her argument that all alphabetic text that students produce while creating a multimodal project is the type of writing that we teach in composition courses. Yes, literally it IS writing, but the critics who claim that by teaching multimodal comp we are not teaching writing are not going to be satisfied with that argument. And I'm not satisfied with it either. Taking notes or writing a paragraph here and there is not the writing that college students find challenging. In my opinion, students already know how to write effectively when they are writing to communicate a short idea. What they struggle with is developing an argument and sustaining an idea over a number of pages. And that is what I think critics mean when they say that we are teaching multimodal comp rather than writing. They mean the longer sustained type of writing that often doesn't occur if we teach multimodal projects.
Last but not least, I didn't like her writing style. Her "Mediated Action Framework" is just a fancy name for a very basic principle that she makes way more complicated than necessary: all kinds of media have a rhetorical situation and meaning. True. And it seems to me that this is really her whole point, yet she makes it in a really convoluted manner.
Overall, I just didn't see anything really new here. I know it's five years old, but I feel I should learn something new when I read a whole book, regardless of how much I already know. And I did learn a lot in the process part at the beginning, but after that, not so much.
June 22, 2012
Along with Geoffrey Sirc's Composition as a Happening," this is the most thrilling comp. theory book I've read lately. It focuses on having composition students choose for themselves--depending on their purposes-- the type of modes and genres they wish to compose in and reflect on the "affordances and constraints" such modes and genres permit. In the appendix to the book, Shipka includes three prompts ("invoices") that writing instructors might find useful for their own class. Some of the assignments appear a little too ambitious but, with enough tweaking, has the potential to really give students the opportunity to reflect on the procedural aspect of composing. Shipka doesn't simply resurrect process but makes it central to her pedagogy.
October 2, 2019
Totally fan girling over Shipka, her message, and how her research aligns with my own work. I love her clear, well-supported argument for why using technology in classes isn't enough for students to have a multimodal experience, and also how composition should be moving towards other forms than standard writing. YES! I hope I get the opportunity to meet her one day.
What could have been better: The APA style has errors (come on now...) and Shipka doesn't give many visual examples of student work/how she evaluates. I think having clear evaluative criteria based on effort, not just if students did it, is important.
What could have been better: The APA style has errors (come on now...) and Shipka doesn't give many visual examples of student work/how she evaluates. I think having clear evaluative criteria based on effort, not just if students did it, is important.
September 9, 2024
Pretty interesting! I had to read this for one of my college classes and thought I may as well use it to reach my yearly reading challenge so here it is. But it was still pretty good! I enjoyed reading about most of this and now I know a whole lot about multimodality when I didn’t know that was even a word before. Overall, I enjoyed this and I’ll be reviewing my other college textbooks and adding them to my Goodreads challenge too because why not? I’m not reading them for nothing.
July 30, 2025
I really appreciated the philosophy and theory behind this book as well as the specific examples that Shipka provides of how she teaches composition. It may be worth noting that readers who aren't interested in theory might not get what they are looking for out of this text, though.
on-pause
October 19, 2014http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/journal...
"My ultimate point is this: rather than call for composition teachers to tease out one or two aspects of multimodality to enrich their classrooms (as does Selfe regarding the aural in her piece “The Movement of Air” and George with visuals in her aforementioned article), we must move toward what Jody Shipka aptly calls a “composition made whole”—a classroom where all modes of communication converge to make meaning."
On hold: 10 December 2014 as I have to return it.
"My ultimate point is this: rather than call for composition teachers to tease out one or two aspects of multimodality to enrich their classrooms (as does Selfe regarding the aural in her piece “The Movement of Air” and George with visuals in her aforementioned article), we must move toward what Jody Shipka aptly calls a “composition made whole”—a classroom where all modes of communication converge to make meaning."
On hold: 10 December 2014 as I have to return it.
September 25, 2015
I read this book as a requirement for my WRIT 501 class. Shipka writes well, but to me, her examples are suspect. I wonder how one teacher can get so many perfect examples from her students. Sharing some of the not so perfect examples would have made the message she's trying to get across more palatable for teachers who struggle with how to incorporate new media into their writing classes.
May 22, 2012
Incredibly important work on what it looks like to theorize, assign, and assess multimodal work that goes beyond the digital. A quick read, but full of thoughts that will stay with me for a long time.
January 17, 2013
Excellent book; easy read with deep, challenging, and provocative ideas. Argues that we should change the way we conduct process research and attend to process in the classroom. Articulate, innovative, and creative. A paradigm-shifting book. All compositionists should read it.
August 21, 2012
Focuses on multimodal work in composition classrooms. I appreciate her discussion of pedagogy in the classroom.
April 4, 2017
I believe in the ideas expressed in this book but I feel like following through 100% is kind of dangerous for someone in my position with such little job security. That said, I did get a lot of ideas about ways to embrace more modalities in the classroom. I really like the idea of a multimodal research assignment on student identities.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews