Rationale for Multi-Modal Assignment

This semester, in this class and a technical writing class, I have been learning more about the visual aspects of documents. I am the person who has always written papers in MLA format (required or not) with 12 pt Times New Roman, 1-inch margins, and double-spaced text. But after learning so much about design, I feel as if a whole world has been opened for me.

Even though I think the content of my students’ texts is generally more important than how they look, I want my students to become more aware of the visual rhetoric of their papers. Most of the writing they do in their lives will not be academic-looking essays, and sometimes the visual rhetoric of their work will be extremely important, especially in a business setting.

However, designing a decent document takes more than being functionally literate in a design program like Microsoft Publisher or Adobe In Design. Rather, knowing the steps for changing fonts, creating grids, manipulating colors, and incorporating pictures might actually lead a student to create a less effective document than the basic MLA essay.

Therefore, students also need both critical and rhetorical literacy in text design. They need to consider how each change they make affects the readability, attractiveness, and persuasive capabilities of a document.

If they are not in graphic design classes, where else will they learn these principles? As writing teachers, we should help our students with the abstract and concrete elements of creating written work—particularly in this increasingly digital age.

Feeling this responsibility, I decided to introduce my students to this world by inventing an assignment that combines these two areas of writing. First, they will write a persuasive essay, focusing on the content of their writing. Then, they will make that essay into a unique, creative, even more persuasive document using Microsoft Publisher. Along the way, I will give them tips for document design and also encourage them to think critically about the process.

In the end, I hope my students not only see the possibilities for visual persuasion in their future academic work but also become more aware of the visual techniques used in advertising and other media around them.