College English Jan 2014

Multilingual Writing as Rhetorical Attunement

Rebecca Lorimer Leonard

Abstract

This essay examines the lived literacy experiences of six multilingual immigrant writers, arguing that their everyday multilingual practices foster a distinct rhetorical sensibility: rhetorical attunement—an ear for, or a tuning toward, difference or multiplicity. Rhetorical attunement is a way of acting in the world as a multilingual writer that assumes linguistic multiplicity and invites the negotiation of meaning across linguistic differences. The essay shows that multilingual writers aren’t aware of this quality of language a priori, but come to know—become rhetorically attuned—across a lifetime of communicating across difference.

Journal
College English
Published
2014-01-01
DOI
10.58680/ce201424524
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism multilingual writers literacy studies
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (14)

  1. Hedquist et al. (2026)
    Tuning In: Rhetorical Attunement as a Methodological Practice for Collaborative…
    Written Communication
  2. Santana et al. (2024)
    Working toward Antiracist Graduate Student Writing Development
    College English
  3. Frandsen et al. (2024)
    Challenging the Myth of the Traditional Grad Student: A Case Study about Academ…
    College Composition and Communication
  4. Hodges et al. (2023)
    Transnational Technical Communication: English as a Business Lingua Franca in E…
    Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
  5. Zhu (2023)
    Interconnectivity and Power Subversion: Enacting the Rhetoric of According-With
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Show all 14 →
  1. Szymanski (2023)
    Conversations with Other-than-Human Creatures: Unpacking the Ambiguity of “with…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  2. Park (2023)
    Agency, Identity, and Writing: Perspectives from First-Generation Students of C…
    Research in the Teaching of English
  3. Rahman (2022)
    Wikis as "Third Space": Diversifying "Access" for Technical Communication
    Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
  4. Walker (2020)
    Lifeworld Discourse, Translingualism, and Agency in a Discourse Genealogy of Cé…
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  5. Hodges et al. (2019)
    Writing in Transnational Workplaces: Teaching Strategies for Multilingual Engineers
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  6. Martín et al. (2019)
    Pedagogies of Digital Composing through a Translingual Approach
    Computers and Composition
  7. Wang (2019)
    Observing literacy learning across WeChat and first-year writing: A scalar anal…
    Computers and Composition
  8. Willard-Traub (2019)
    Learning Resilience from Multilingual Students
    Pedagogy
  9. Olson et al. (2015)
    “The Advantages of Knowing How to Read and Write”: Literacy, Filmic Pedagogies,…
    Literacy in Composition Studies

References (0)

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