Even though a great deal of image and text will be spent discussing the website of an anti-smoking organization, this webtext isn't really even about them. The concern here is what happens when the classical means of persuasion meet the cool tactics of a digital interface and take a beating in the process.

The Hub represents a departure from the way writing is usually conceived of and taught in Australia, in that it emphasizes writing as a discipline with a classical rhetorical framework. … Through preliminary longitudinal data from our Sydney Study of Writing as well as student interviews and program feedback, we demonstrate how and why a rhetorical approach best supports the development of student writing in multimodal contexts.

Rhetorical Roots and Media Future is a multimodal project exploring podcasting as a part of a writing class. The text has two main components: a hypertextual webtext and a seven episode podcast series. The podcasts provide both a basic introduction to podcasting as a classroom activity and the ways in which podcasting provides new ways of engaging and shaping the canon of classical rhetoric, as well as the rhetorical skills that are foundational for good writing practice.

This video reflection starts in a presentation on comics at the Thomas R. Watson Conference last October, which prompted the author to explore the etymology of cosmos and comos through an alternate reading of Gorgias'Encomium of Helen. The author then works with comos, as revelry, to offer thoughts on comics as a form of multimodal composition and its use in the classroom.

Kathleen E. Welch, author ofElectric Rhetoric: Classical Rhetoric, Oralism, and a New LiteracyandThe Contemporary Reception of Classical Rhetoric: Appropriations of Ancient Discourse, is the Samuel Roberts Noble Family Foundation Presidential Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma.