"Writing in Multimodal Texts" - Jeff Bezemer & Gunther Kress

Bezemer, Jeff and Gunther Kress. "Writing in Multimodal Texts: A Social Semiotic Account of Designs for Learning." Written Communication 25.2 (2008): 166-195.

The authors provide conceptual/analytical tools by defining mode as "a socially and culturally shaped resource for making meaning" and medium as "the substance in and through which meaning is instantiated/realized and through which meaning becomes available to others" (171-172).  Both mode and medium have potential and constraints on what can be communicated in what ways by sign makers with texts seen as complex signs.  They also identify the processes of translation in general as important social actions for multimodal composition with transduction as change across modes and transformation as changes within a mode. These changes require epistemological commitments as well as (re-)contextual selection, arrangement, foregrounding and social (re-)positioning.  They use examples from classroom resources over time including representations of measuring angles with protractors, and the digestive system to illustrate how these conceptual/analytical tools can be useful.

 #multimodal