Conclusion: Realizing a composition made whole

In her conclusion, Jody Shipka (2011) reemphasized the need for a more comprehensive approach to writing that understands it as a complex, mediated activity. However, she acknowledged, moving towards such a version of a composition will not be without complications or resistance. The types of texts argued for throughout the book are often perceived by faculty in general as creative and artistic instead of academic, and this is something instructors who adopt this pedagogy will need to address, both to colleagues and their own students.

Shipka identified two different approaches that will move us toward understanding multimodal composition as the complex communicative practice that it is: academics must practice multimodal composition in their own scholarship, and must also help students identify how their work is doing the work of academic writing. Further, Shipka explained, adopting such a pedagogy does not necessitate adding anything new to the course curriculum. Writing classes can still focus on writing and research strategies as they acknowledge the other semiotic systems that are a part of written texts.

One of the most intriguing points of the chapter comes at the very end in a note where the author justified writing a book. Shipka spent the entire text advocating for realizing the complexity of writing and arguing for a framework that would bring this complexity to light in the classroom. However, she herself wrote a traditional, linear-based text to make her argument. The irony of this does not go unnoticed by Shipka, and she explains that her goal was to "empower individuals to choose wisely, critically, and purposefully the relationships, structures, and representation systems that are most fitting or apprpriate given the purposes, potentials, and contexts of one's work" (p. 149). In this closing note, Shipka argued that choosing the form of a book demonstrates her attempt at choosing wisely, critically, and purposefully. While she better positioned herself to reach skeptics of multimodal composition by composing in this medium, and while she provided a solid framework for her pedagogical approach, I am not certain this book alone would be enough to persuade such readers.