Remixing Composition: A History of Multimodal Writing Pedagogy

Studies in Writing and Rhetoric

by Jason Palmeri

Jason Palmeri’s Remixing A History of Multimodal Writing Pedagogy challenges the longheld notion that the study and practice of composition has historically focused on words alone. Palmeri revisits many of the classic texts of composition theory from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, closely examining how past compositionists responded to “new media.” He reveals that long before the rise of personal computers and the graphic web, compositionists employed analog multimedia technologies in the teaching of composition. Palmeri discovers these early scholars anticipated many of our current interests in composing with visual, audio, and video texts.
Using the concept of the remix, Palmeri outlines practical pedagogical suggestions for how writing teachers can build upon this heritage with digital activities, assignments, and curricula that meet the needs of contemporary students. He details a pluralist vision of composition pedagogy that explains the ways that writing teachers can synthesize expressivist, cognitive, and social-epistemic approaches. Palmeri reveals an expansive history of now forgotten multimodal approaches to composing moving images and sounds and demonstrates how current compositionists can productively remix these past pedagogies to address the challenges and possibilities of the contemporary digital era. A strikingly original take on the recent history of composition, Remixing Composition is an important work for the future of writing instruction in a digital age.
 

Genres: Nonfiction

216 pages, Paperback

First published March 29, 2012

Reviews

[Lance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jason Palmeri's book helps both the compositionist and the rhetorical theorist see the history of the writing classroom from a perspective outside our traditional histories. In the voice of an experienced and caring writing instructor, Palmeri shows how many compositionists have always seen writing as multimodal, and new technologies are not necessarily a new trend in the teaching of composition. In the process, he considers several major thinkers in the field, as well as some more obscure textbooks that are very interesting to read about. Each chapter also includes great ideas for any writing instructor looking to include more multimodal perspectives into their classroom. A must read for anyone teaching writing.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a crisply written, intriguing exploration of composition's little-known history of multimodal exploration in the pre-digital era (60s, 70s, early 80s), good, bad, and ugly. A good reminder of how our institutional memories become clouded over by official histories, and full of practical (and ethical) pedagogical advice for how we might implement assignments involving aural and visual production in the writing classroom.

[Peaches · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, it was useful to me and I appreciate Palmeri's ability to present multimodal pedagogies in a broader way than just "using technology." Palmeri views the act of composing as something that transcends disciplines, but can also transfer to writing if something multimodal is done beforehand. As a budding scholar in arts-based research, I find the content to be helpful for my dissertation, which is why I am choosing not to expand on the content too much here.
I will point out that the majority of people who wrote reviews wrote between the year of publication and the year after, which means there is a review gap of almost six years; consequently, some of the suggestions seem stale or hackneyed. For instance, assigning students a "film project" often leads to groans of annoyance, as they have to do them for many classes now. In 2012, Instagram and "newer" forms of social media did not exist yet. Moreover, several technological advancements in education have been made. Some of these activities suggested for students in their first year of college are now assigned in middle school. Though Palmeri does present other activities besides ones involving technology, around half of the book is still dedicated to it, which was useless to me due to the aforementioned datedness. Palmeri's sources also span a very dated range (including an article about Napster, which was obsolete by 2012...). From working in a collegiate English department, I know that professors often stick to "old school" ways and take longer to catch on to trends (for instance, my department only recently required us to assign digital portfolios), but Palmeri should really come out with a new, updated edition.

[Christina Lavecchia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Palmeri's book is effective at achieving two goals: he offers a useful view of the history of new media conversations in composition studies (introducing us readers to lesser known conversations and texts in the process) while also indicating how these ideas can impact digital composing practices in the classroom. Indeed, I was glad I read this book just before I began teaching a digital composing course at my university—he offers inventional activities and ideas that are easy to put into practice, and I've found them useful so far in my course.

Palmeri argues that the ways in which we talk about new media today echo the ways in which we talked about television, photography, etc. in earlier decades. Further, he thinks that looking back at such conversations can help us think about multimodal/digital pedagogy today (and demonstrates this through those suggestions for practice I've found useful so far). A good and useful read.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jason Palmeri reminds us that the field of Composition has long harbored multimodal tendencies. He goes even further by analyzing how a number of early process, expressivist, and cognitive theorists began to think in multimodal terms between alphabetic and visual and speech modes. I only would have liked more examples of how rhetorical theories shape and can be shaped by going multimodal in a writing classroom. I already have a few ideas. I look forward to talking more with others about this important new direction. Meaning making is not only found in print. So much of what we gesture at is left unsaid in print.

[Kara Poe Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

This books tells a different story of the history of composition by showing how the argument about integrating multimodal composition into the classroom has been around since the beginning of composition as a discipline. Palmeri challenges the accepted narratives and adds abundantly to the field's understanding of our past. The book contains numerous teaching ideas and strategies for remixing composition and using multimodal and digital writing in our courses. It's a fabulous book, and I highly recommend it.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the thesis that we (composition theorists) have been thinking along the lines of visual and digital rhetoric even before it looked the way it does today. Interesting applications and thorough thinking.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific revision of the history of composition that shows how our field has always already been mulitmodal. Or to put this another way, writing teachers have been consistently concerned with the look and sound of texts, and with how words interact with images, video, and audio.

[Andrea Beaudin]

Loved this book! Really great historical perspective to re-view, re-see, re-envision the future of multimodal composing pedagogy.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Useful and innovative, will definitely re-visit this text on a regular basis.