Multimodal Composing: Strategies for Twenty-First-Century Writing Consultations
Edited by Lindsay A. Sabatino and Brian Fallon

Introduction

Composing practices in English and other humanities departments have long since adopted multimodal composition as a teaching component along with other textual forms of composition. The incorporation of this dynamic multimodal aspect in the composition classroom could be seen as a result of a significant influence of visual and new media on the field, which is creating a more vibrant discipline and, at the same time, making composing practices more complex. Multimodal refers to the dynamic relationship among different modes of communication (linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial) and the ways "they are combined to create a message" (Sabatino, 2019, p. 4). Talking about multimodality in composition courses, Jonathan Alexander and Jacqueline Rhodes (2014) noted that multimodality "will give way to increased inter-and multidisciplinarity" and thus "the communications challenges and possibilities of our time require a significantly deeper understanding of 'composing' than our discipline currently offers" (p. 5). Therefore, to effectively incorporate multimodal projects in writing and other courses, it is important to have a sound knowledge of the technicalities of multimodality, multimodal practices, and the digital technological affordances available. Instructors often incorporate various multimodal projects in their courses, requiring students to explore and learn composing techniques in different genres and using different digital tools. However, classroom time and individual support for students can be limited. Writing centers step in to fill this gap by providing one-on-one support for students in their multimodal project assignments, with writing center coaches (also known as consultants) playing a key role in conducting consultations with the students. Writing centers manage a variety of tasks, including conducting workshops and training for writing consultants, scheduling writing and designing consultations with students, and assisting students with presentations and resume building. Assisting students with their multimodal projects by providing feedback and suggestions on their projects is one of the major support systems provided by writing centers, given the increasingly visual nature of contemporary composition practices. Multimodal Composing: Strategies for Twenty-First-Century Writing Consultations (hereafter Multimodal Composing), edited by Lindsay A. Sabatino and Brian Fallon, thus serves as a practical guide for writing center consultants in helping students with their multimodal work.

While different terms, such as writing tutors, coaches, and consultants, are used interchangeably to refer to writing center coaches at colleges and universities, the editors of the collection "refer to those who are working with students as consultants rather than tutors, partly due to the kinds of texts under discussion" (Fallon & Sabatino, 2019, p. xii). They further explained that "in many cases, consultants play the role of expert users, listeners, viewers, and readers of the different multimodal projects discussed" (p. xii). Therefore, in this review, the word "consultant" will be used to refer to writing coaches or tutors.

Multimodal Composing contributes to this conversation on multimodal composing practices in academic settings by bringing together a collection of examples of multimodal composition projects relevant to most disciplines. This book is an essential resource for writing center consultants, teachers of composition, and other readers who are looking for a comprehensive foundational guide on multimodal composition. While the book is structured in a handbook or guidebook format, it aligns with other theoretical works on multimodality and writing center tutoring, such as works by Arlene Archer (2017), Jennifer Grouling and Jackie Grutsch McKinney (2016), and others. I notice that Multimodal Composing raises questions about discipline-specific multimodal composition practices and also draws attention to the need for practical activities, consultant workshops, and training necessary to realize the full potential of the book.

The collection's editors outlined three major aims of this book:

(1) build on and evolve tutoring practices and strategies for multimodal texts, (2) introduce consultants to important features and practices in a variety of multimodal texts, and (3) start a conversation about the relationship among rhetorical choices, design thinking, and technological awareness in the writing center. (Fallon & Sabatino, 2019, p. x)

In this review, I begin with the list of chapters in Multimodal Composing and then provide background on the disciplinary context and how the book situates the practice of multimodal composing within the writing center. Next, I discuss the various helpful strategies and insights shared in the book. Finally, I conclude with my overall assessment including the book's relevance to different readers.

List of Chapters

Preface by Brian Fallon and Lindsay A. Sabatino

1. Introduction: Design Theory and Multimodal Consulting by Lindsay A. Sabatino
2. Storyboard(ing): Multimodal Tool and Artifact by Brandy Ball Blake and Karen J. Head
3. Artist and Design Statements: When Text and Image Make Meaning Together by Brian Fallon
4. Brochures: Helping Students Make Good Design Decisions by Sohui Lee and Jarret Krone
5. Academic Research Posters: Thinking Like a Designer by Russell Carpenter and Courtnie Morin
6. Prezi and PowerPoints Designed to Engage: Getting the Most Out of Quick-and-Dirty Pathos by Shawn Apostel
7. Infographics: A Powerful Combination of Word, Image, and Data by Alyse Knorr
8. ePortfolios: Collect, Select, Reflect by Lauri Dietz and Kate Flom Derrick
9. Web-Design Tutoring: Responding as a User by Clint Gardner, Joe McCormick, and Jarrod Barben
10. Podcasts: Sound Strategies for Sonic Literacy by Brenta Blevins
11. Multimodal Video Projects: Video—Doing by Example by Patrick Anderson and Florence Davies
12. Public Service Announcements (PSAs): Focused Messages for Specific Audiences by Alice Johnston Myatt
13. Professional Identity and Social Media: Consulting Personal Branding Projects by James C. W. Truman
14. Copyright and Citations for Multimedia Sources by Molly Schoen and Sarah Blazer

Book Outline

The book begins with a preface by Fallon and Sabatino followed by an introductory chapter by Sabatino that highlights the main ideas of all fourteen chapters and discusses the basics of design theory and multimodal composition: "Each contributor offers peer, graduate student, and professional consultants practical information and strategies based on first-hand experience" (Sabatino, 2019, p. 21). The book is targeted at writing center consultants to help them understand the basics of various forms of composition so that they are better prepared to help students at different levels of composition processes, especially multimodal composition. For that purpose, Sabatino's chapter did a great job of presenting a brief introduction on rhetorical devices, rhetorical situation, purpose, audience, and context. The focus on different rhetorical elements also resonated throughout the rest of the chapters. In addition, the author presented the introductory ideas on design principles, primarily focusing on the Gestalt principles such as figure-ground contrast, grouping, and color, and these theoretical ideas are directly linked with multimodal projects. The rhetorical elements and Gestalt principles are presented as the essential components of most forms of multimodal composition. Sabatino asserted, "In order to assist writers in areas of design, consultants need a basic understanding of visual-design principles to provide meaningful feedback on projects—specifically applying the Gestalt principles of psychology to discuss visual-design basics" (p. 7). The introduction covers these theoretical principles, which can help writing consultants provide helpful feedback on various multimodal projects students bring into writing centers.

The introduction provides a broad overview of theoretical principles employed in working with multimodal texts in different settings. These concepts are discussed in depth in the rest of the chapters, each of which focuses on a specific multimodal project and provides strategies for writing consultants to help students revise their work by connecting them to various design principles and rhetorical elements. For instance, in "Multimodal Video Projects: Video—Doing by Example," Patrick Anderson and Florence Davies began by discussing a real example from the Texas A&M University Writing Center's (TAMUWC) video contest hosted by the National Academy of Engineering where "participating students were to create a short video demonstrating how a concept of mega-engineering (large-scale projects engaging a cross-disciplinary engineering approach) could address and solve various global problems" (pp. 153–154). The authors then discussed some concepts of film theory such as realism and formalism, and the filmmaking process, including preproduction, production, and postproduction. Additionally, the authors covered other important film concepts such as shot, staging, lighting, framing, and camera movement. Overall, the format of each chapter, which focuses on a particular multimodal project and begins with an example before providing theoretical insights, is helpful for consultants in practically applying their learning at their writing center. Thus, each chapter can also be read as a standalone resource.

The book is designed in a structure similar to a guidebook, so the chapters are written and organized in such a way that it reads more like an instructional guide rather than an essay collection. The chapters teach readers how to respond to different multimodal projects. All chapters in the book follow a particular structural pattern throughout. This structure also helps the readers to know what to look for in each chapter.

The chapters in the book are uniformly structured, featuring the following sections in the same order:

• Chapter Overview
• Illustrative Example
• Background Information
• Consultation Strategies
• Activity
• Conclusion
• Resources
• Key Search Terms
• References

Each chapter begins with a short chapter overview followed by a section titled Illustrative Example, which shares a story picked from a real-life situation from different writing centers in universities in the United States. These stories mainly depict how various writing consultants helped students approach their projects from a different angle, not by telling them what to do, but by opening up dialogues and asking questions. For example, the story in "Artist and Design Statements" by Brian Fallon gave an example of how the author in working with a designer first began by asking questions about the significance of fabric choices (p. 39). Similarly, in "Podcasts: Sound Strategies for Sonic Literacy," Brenta Blevins shared how they encouraged a student to select the content by asking questions about the target audience (p. 141). These illustrative examples are a great way to assist readers in understanding various strategies that they can use as writing consultants. Moreover, using stories to share these strategies makes the chapters interesting to read and easy to visualize. In most chapters, the authors suggested that writing consultants adopt a question–answer approach to help students achieve their project goals. This strategy helps students identify and address the purpose of their projects and is also an excellent way to communicate and build relationships, both with writing consultants and their projects' audiences.

Brandy Ball Blake and Karen J. Head's chapter, "Storyboard(ing): Multimodal Tool and Artifact," discussed storyboarding as a form of composition and offered helpful information on storyboarding as well as various steps for creating influential multimodal texts for different audiences. The authors also suggested connecting multiple design elements and referring to online templates to offer advice to early multimodal composers. Drawing on the importance of storyboarding in the classroom, the authors noted, "Despite its consistent use in film design and preparation, storyboarding has many uses outside the film industry, and storyboarding assignments have become common in K–12 and higher education" (p. 26). The authors added that "the development of a storyboard forces students to make very specific choices in how information or stories are presented" (p. 26), which will then ultimately expose them to different design principles and rhetorical choices. To help students make the most appropriate design choices, the authors suggested that writing consultants "become familiar with some filmmaking concepts" (p. 31). The authors added, "Knowing a little about types of shots, camera angle, and point of view can help writing consultants better understand the variation within the storyboarding form and better explain the available options to students" (p. 31). Additionally, Brian Fallon's chapter, "Artist and Design Statements: When Text and Image Make Meaning Together," reiterated the significance of rhetoric and rhetorical situations in understanding artists' design choices and purposes. Fallon highlighted the power of visuals and asserted how important it is "for consultants to help artists figure out how their written and visual work communicate their world-view or philosophy in tandem" (p. 42).

Sohui Lee and Jarret Krone's chapter, "Brochures: Helping Students Make Good Design Decisions," and Russell Carpenter and Courtnie Morin's chapter, "Academic Research Posters: Thinking Like a Designer," elaborated more on design choices and design elements and discussed creating a balance between text and visuals for printed documents. Lee and Krone provided a helpful suggestion that "consultants' feedback on brochures should be shaped by the student's stage in the process of producing a brochure, a process that can be compared to the stages in writing" (p. 56). Similarly, Carpenter and Morin offered six strategies to help students with design choices: "moving from low tech to high tech; interacting with the poster; focusing on design; prototyping; accessibility; and critiquing designs" (p. 74). As suggested by different authors in the book, design documents such as storyboards, brochures, and posters are more centered on communicating and building connections with audiences than focusing simply on sharing information.

There are also chapters on digital documents such as Prezi and PowerPoints (Apostel, Chapter 6), infographics (Knorr, Chapter 7), and ePortfolios (Dietz & Flom Derrick, Chapter 8), which center around static visual design. The later chapters delve into helping students with web design (Gardner, McCormick, & Barben, Chapter 9), podcasts (Blevins, Chapter 10), multimodal video projects (Anderson & Davies, Chapter 11), and public service announcements (Johnston Myatt, Chapter 12), which utilize both sound and moving visuals. Throughout all the chapters, the authors continued to guide writing consultants to help students make informed rhetorical choices based on the affordances of different design tools and platforms. The authors suggested focusing on the audience, purpose, and context behind designing any multimodal texts on any design platform. As various types of multimodal projects may be encountered in writing centers, the authors in this book advised that writing consultants need to be readily prepared for any situation. They suggested that understanding design principles, rhetoric, and rhetorical devices can provide basic knowledge to help deal with varieties of multimodal texts.

The final chapter, "Copyright and Citations for Multimedia Sources" by Molly Schoen and Sarah Blazer, discussed the ethical use of images in various design projects. The authors offered suggestions on how to obtain royalty-free photos and how to correctly attribute and credit the images used in these projects.

Throughout most chapters, the book includes numerous images and illustrations that help readers visualize and understand the multimodal work being discussed. For example, a picture of a storyboard sketch visually demonstrates what a first sketch of storyboard may look like (p. 25). Additionally, the book features research posters (pp. 70–71), infographics (pp. 101, 106), e-portfolios (pp. 117–118), and more, offering clear and tangible examples for readers to reference. Furthermore, the book concludes with a comprehensive glossary of technical terms, providing readers with a quick and easy way to understand and define technical terminologies used throughout the text.