Multimodality

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Multimodality is the application of multiple literacies within one medium. Multiple literacies or "modes" contribute to an audience's understanding of a composition.^[1] Everything from the placement of images to the organization of the content to the method of delivery creates meaning. This is the result of a shift from isolated text being relied on as the primary source of communication, to the image being utilized more frequently in the digital age.^[2] Multimodality describes communication practices in terms of the textual, aural, linguistic, spatial, and visual resources used to compose messages.^[3]

While all communication, literacy, and composing practices are and always have been multimodal,^[4] academic and scientific attention to the phenomenon only started gaining momentum in the 1960s. Work by Roland Barthes and others has led to a broad range of disciplinarily distinct approaches. More recently, rhetoric and composition instructors have included multimodality in their coursework. In their position statement on Understanding and Teaching Writing: Guiding Principles, the National Council of Teachers of English state that "'writing' ranges broadly from written language (such as that used in this statement), to graphics, to mathematical notation."^[5]