What I Will Do Differently

I am excited to teach the multi-modal assignment the next time I teach composition. However, a few questions I asked myself during the process of writing and creating my own persuasive document prompted me to change some aspects of my assignment.

Why are there blank pages in my document?

I realized toward the end of my document creation that there were blank pages in my booklet. It took me quite some time to realize that a booklet like mine must be printed in multiples of four, which made sense after I thought about it mathematically. My students may have similar questions, so now I am more prepared to help them plan how many pages they will be using.

Do I have to have a rhetorical reason for everything?

I asked myself this question as I made some of my choices, and I decided that I will not hammer this point too hard with my students. While I do want them to think hard about why they are making these choices, not every choice must correspond with a very specific rhetorical purpose. For example, the choice of border design might not relate thematically to the content, but if it is chosen to attract the reader, it will make the document more rhetorically effective. In other words, some of students’ design decisions might relate to broader principles of attraction and readability, if not specifically to the ideas in their issue essays.

How do I choose a picture to illustrate this theme?

Because my issue essay was about very abstract concepts like ideology and language, I had a very difficult time finding any pictures to illustrate my essay, to rhetorically strengthen it by adding visual correspondence. Eventually, I found the man on the soapbox, but was the only picture I used. Hopefully, my students’ topics will be more concrete than mine, and it will be easier for them to find effective illustrations. If not, I need to think hard about what kinds of pictures can be used for abstract concepts.

When I teach this assignment, my students are likely to have many more questions than I did. Publisher may be new for some, and some may not even have used Word. I simply need to remember to be patient and to give them plenty of time to practice in the computer lab. But I look forward to seeing their creativity and what they learn about visual rhetoric!