Written Communication Apr 2008

Writing in Multimodal Texts: A Social Semiotic Account of Designs for Learning

Jeff Bezemer ; Gunther Kress

Abstract

Frequently writing is now no longer the central mode of representation in learning materials—textbooks, Web-based resources, teacher-produced materials. Still (as well as moving) images are increasingly prominent as carriers of meaning. Uses and forms of writing have undergone profound changes over the last decades, which calls for a social, pedagogical, and semiotic explanation. Two trends mark that history. The digital media, rather than the (text) book, are more and more the site of appearance and distribution of learning resources, and writing is being displaced by image as the central mode for representation. This poses sharp questions about present and future roles and forms of writing. For text, design and principles of composition move into the foreground. Here we sketch a social semiotic account that aims to elucidate such principles and permits consideration of their epistemological as well as social/pedagogic significance. Linking representation with social factors, we put forward terms to explore two issues: the principles underlying the design of multimodal ensembles and the potential epistemological and pedagogic effects of multimodal designs. Our investigation is set within a research project with a corpus of learning resources for secondary school in Science, Mathematics, and English from the 1930s, the 1980s, and from the first decade of the 21st century, as well as digitally represented and online learning resources from the year 2000 onward.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2008-04-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088307313177
CompPile
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing pedagogy teacher development multimodality online writing instruction
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (21)

  1. Pandey et al. (2025)
    Large language models and digital multimodal composition in the first-year comp…
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  2. Harris et al. (2022)
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    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. Cutrufello (2021)
    Scanning as a Rhetorical Activity: Reporting Histories of Ether Experiments in …
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  4. Harris et al. (2021)
    Using Multimedia for Instructor Presence in Purposeful Pedagogy-Driven Online T…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. Pigozzi (2020)
    Young Authors Online: Exploring the Meaning Making Process Through Positionings…
    Computers and Composition
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  1. Teston et al. (2019)
    The Grind of Multimodal Work in Professional Writing Pedagogies
    Computers and Composition
  2. Smirnov et al. (2019)
    “Presenting Our Perspective”: Recontextualizing Youths’ Experiences of Hypercri…
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  3. Reid (2019)
    Compressing, Expanding, and Attending to Scientific Meaning: Writing the Semiot…
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  4. Sterponi et al. (2017)
    Endangered Literacies? Affordances of Paper-Based Literacy in Medical Practice …
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  5. Cimasko et al. (2017)
    Multimodal Resemiotization and Authorial Agency in an L2 Writing Classroom
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  6. Anderson et al. (2017)
    Seeing Academically Marginalized Students’ Multimodal Designs From a Position o…
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  7. McGrail et al. (2017)
    K-12 multimodal assessment and interactive audiences: An exploratory analysis o…
    Assessing Writing
  8. McElroy (2015)
    Assemblage by Design: The Postcards of Curt Teich and Company
    Computers and Composition
  9. Wickman (2015)
    Locating the Semiotic Power of Writing in Science
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  10. Alexander et al. (2014)
    Letter from the Editor
    Computers and Composition
  11. Getto (2013)
    Networked knowledges: student collaborative digital composing as communicative action
    Communication Design Quarterly
  12. Anderson (2013)
    Contrasting Systemic Functional Linguistic and Situated Literacies Approaches t…
    Written Communication
  13. Shanahan (2013)
    Composing “Kid-Friendly” Multimodal Text: When Conversations, Instruction, and …
    Written Communication
  14. Fulwiler et al. (2012)
    After Digital Storytelling: Video Composing in the New Media Age
    Computers and Composition
  15. Gilje (2010)
    Multimodal Redesign in Filmmaking Practices: An Inquiry of Young Filmmakers’ De…
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  16. Wickman (2010)
    Writing Material in Chemical Physics Research: The Laboratory Notebook as Locus…
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