College Composition and Communication Jun 2009

The Movement of Air, the Breath of Meaning: Aurality and Multimodal Composing

Cynthia L. Selfe

Abstract

Rhetoric and composition’s increasing attention to multimodal composing involves challenges that go beyond issues of access to digital technologies and electronic composing environments. As a specific case study, this article explores the history of aural composing modalities (speech, music, sound) and examines how they have been understood and used within English and composition classrooms and generally subsumed by the written word in such settings. I argue that the relationship between aurality (and visual modalities) and writing has limited our understanding of composing as a multimodal rhetorical activity and has thus, deprived students of valuable semiotic resources for making meaning. Further, in light of scholarship on the importance of aurality to different communities and cultures, I argue that our contemporary adherence to alphabetic-only composition constrains the semiotic efforts of individuals and groups who value multiple modalities of expression. I encourage teachers and scholars of composition, and other disciplines, to adopt an increasingly thoughtful understanding of aurality and the role it—and other modalities—can play in contemporary communication tasks.

Journal
College Composition and Communication
Published
2009-06-01
DOI
10.58680/ccc20097190
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism writing pedagogy qualitative research multimodality
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (44)

  1. Townsend et al. (2026)
    Student perceptions of screen recording and screencast assignments in first-yea…
    Computers and Composition
  2. Pandey (2025)
    Exploring Design Strategies for Student Career Portfolios
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. Baynes-Ross et al. (2025)
    Remixing the College Essay
    Pedagogy
  4. Fu et al. (2025)
    Translanguaging Space Construction in Five Chinese EFL Learners’ Collaborative …
    Written Communication
  5. Gupta et al. (2024)
    “Wayfinding” through the AI wilderness: Mapping rhetorics of ChatGPT prompt wri…
    Computers and Composition
Show all 44 →
  1. Overstreet et al. (2024)
    The “Multimodal Spiral”: Rethinking the Communication Curriculum at an English …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Moon (2024)
    The “Knocking Heart”
    Pedagogy
  3. Alexander (2023)
    Reconceptualizing literacy: Experimentation and play in audio literacy narratives
    Computers and Composition
  4. Friend (2023)
    Constructing belonging through sonic composition
    Computers and Composition
  5. Kingsbury (2023)
    What Wizardry is this?: Somatic Listening and Verbal Metaphor in an Undergradua…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  6. Woods et al. (2023)
    Podcasts in rhetoric and composition: A review of The Big Rhetorical Podcast an…
    Computers and Composition
  7. Butler et al. (2021)
    Sound, captions, action: Voices in video composition projects
    Computers and Composition
  8. Krishnan et al. (2021)
    Multiple utilities of infographics in undergraduate students’ process-based writing
    Writing and Pedagogy
  9. Rowell et al. (2019)
    “I could get lit to Madonna:” Soundscapes & the First Year Writer’s Composing Process
    Computers and Composition
  10. Hamilton (2019)
    Reflection(s) In/On Digital Writing’s Hybrid Pedagogy, 2010–2017
    Computers and Composition
  11. Teston et al. (2019)
    The Grind of Multimodal Work in Professional Writing Pedagogies
    Computers and Composition
  12. Martín et al. (2019)
    Pedagogies of Digital Composing through a Translingual Approach
    Computers and Composition
  13. Barrett et al. (2019)
    More than Transformative: A New View of Prison Writing Narratives
    Reflections: A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric
  14. Stroupe (2019)
    “I Am Sitting Here Right Now with You”
    Pedagogy
  15. Wenger (2019)
    Teaching Attention Literacy
    Pedagogy
  16. Jocius (2018)
    Becoming Entangled: An Analysis of 5th Grade Students Collaborative Multimodal …
    Computers and Composition
  17. Kitalong et al. (2017)
    Multimodal Composition Pedagogy Designed to Enhance Authors’ Personal Agency: L…
    Computers and Composition
  18. Cimasko et al. (2017)
    Multimodal Resemiotization and Authorial Agency in an L2 Writing Classroom
    Written Communication
  19. Colby (2017)
    Game-based Pedagogy in the Writing Classroom
    Computers and Composition
  20. Bowen (2017)
    The Limits of Hacking Composition Pedagogy
    Computers and Composition
  21. Hocks et al. (2017)
    Composing for Sound: Sonic Rhetoric as Resonance
    Computers and Composition
  22. Tham (2017)
    Wearable Writing: Enriching Student Peer Review With Point-of-View Video Feedba…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  23. Alexander et al. (2016)
    Adaptive Remediation and the Facilitation of Transfer in Multiliteracy Center C…
    Computers and Composition
  24. Comstock et al. (2016)
    The Sounds of Climate Change: Sonic Rhetoric in the Anthropocene, the Age of Hu…
    Rhetoric Review
  25. Takayoshi (2015)
    Short-form writing: Studying process in the context of contemporary composing t…
    Computers and Composition
  26. Werner (2015)
    Speaking of Composing (Frameworks): New Media Discussions, 2000–2010
    Computers and Composition
  27. Alexander (2015)
    Glenn Gould and the Rhetorics of Sound
    Computers and Composition
  28. Lee (2015)
    The Melancholy Odyssey of a Dissertation with Pictures
    Pedagogy
  29. Williams (2014)
    From Screen to Screen: Students’ Use of Popular Culture Genres in Multimodal Wr…
    Computers and Composition
  30. Sutherland (2014)
    Reading Yourself
    Pedagogy
  31. Adsanatham et al. (2013)
    Re-Inventing Digital Delivery for Multimodal Composing: A Theory and Heuristic …
    Computers and Composition
  32. Fox (2013)
    Embodying the Writer in the Multimodal Classroom through Disability Studies
    Computers and Composition
  33. Ray (2013)
    More than Just Remixing: Uptake and New Media Composition
    Computers and Composition
  34. Reeves (2013)
    Temptation and Its Discontents: Digital Rhetoric, Flow, and the Possible
    Rhetoric Review
  35. Ahern (2013)
    Tuning the Sonic Playing Field: Teaching Ways of Knowing Sound in First Year Writing
    Computers and Composition
  36. Davis et al. (2012)
    Networking, Storytelling and Knowledge Production in First-Year Writing
    Computers and Composition
  37. George (2012)
    The Performed Self in College Writing
    Pedagogy
  38. Tulley (2011)
    IText Reconfigured: The Rise of the Podcast
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  39. Turnley (2011)
    Towards a Mediological Method: A Framework for Critically Engaging Dimensions o…
    Computers and Composition

References (0)

No references on file for this article.

CrossRef global citation count: 73 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Pedagogy Oct 2023
    Contributors ↗
    rhetorical criticism first-year composition writing pedagogy writing across the curriculum two-year college teacher development collaborative writing assessment writing centers qualitative research multimodality literacy studies race and writing gender and writing disability studies affect and writing literary studies book reviews editorial matter
  2. Rhetoric & Public Affairs Mar 2022
    The Discourse of Propaganda: Case Studies from the Persian Gulf War and the War on Terror ↗
    Yishan Wang
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis writing pedagogy graduate education qualitative research multimodality public rhetoric
  3. Composition Forum 2021
    Remediation that Delivers: Incorporating Attention to Delivery into Transmodal-Translingual Approaches to Composition ↗
    Tait Bergstrom
    rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis writing pedagogy transfer qualitative research multimodality multilingual writers translingualism public rhetoric
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jan 2019
    Teaching Public, Scientific Controversy: Genetically Modified Mosquitoes in the Technical Writing Classroom ↗
    Stephanie Phillips
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism writing pedagogy teacher development argument technical communication qualitative research multimodality
  5. Written Communication Oct 2017
    Multimodal Resemiotization and Authorial Agency in an L2 Writing Classroom ↗
    Tony Cimasko; Dong-shin Shin
    rhetorical criticism writing pedagogy qualitative research multimodality multilingual writers literacy studies