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See PATCHWRITING QUOTE, 285-90 To cite someone else's words exactly as they were said or written. Quotation is most effective when the wording is worth repeating or makes a point so well that no rewording will do it justice or when you want to cite someone's exact words. Quotations in academic writing need to be acknowledged with DOCUMENTATION . ANECDOTE, 85, 412 A brief NARRATIVE used to illustrate a point. REITERATION Repeating a word, a phrase, or an image in a way that drives home a point.

STYLE, 210, 406-7 The particular way something is written, designed, or communicated-its sentence structure, TONE , DESIGN , and word choice-that make it distinctive and get attention. QUOTE, 285-90 To cite someone else's words exactly as they were said or written. Quotation is most effective when the wording is worth repeating or makes a point so well that no rewording will do it justice or when you want to cite someone's exact words.

Quotations in academic writing need to be acknowledged with DOCUMENTATION . OPENING, 146, 410-12 The way a text begins, which plays an important role in drawing an AUDIENCE in. Some ways of beginning an essay: with a dramatic or deceptively simple statement, with something others have said about your topic, with a provocative question or a startling CLAIM , or with an ANECDOTE . QUOTE, 285-90 To cite someone else's words exactly as they were said or written.

Quotation is most effective when the wording is worth repeating or makes a point so well that no rewording will do it justice or when you want to cite someone's exact words. Quotations in academic writing need to be acknowledged with DOCUMENTATION . SIGNAL PHRASES, 293-94 Words used to attribute QUOTED , SUMMARIZED , or PARAPHRASED material to a source, as in according to X or Z claims .

THESIS, 84-85 A statement that identifies the topic and main point of a piece of writing, giving readers an idea of what the text will cover. EVIDENCE, 85-90 In ARGUMENT , the data you present to support your REASONS . Such data may include statistics, calculations, examples, ANECDOTES , QUOTATIONS , case studies, or anything else that will convince your readers that your reasons are compelling.

Evidence should be sufficient (enough to show that the reasons have merit) and relevant (appropriate to the argument you're making). VISUALS, 455-57, 459-67 Photos, graphs, maps, diagrams, pie charts, tables, videos, and other images. Visuals can be used to support or illustrate a point and also to present information that is easier to understand in a chart or graph than it would be in a paragraph. DOCUMENTATION, 309-44, 360-86 Publication information about the sources cited in a text.

IN-TEXT DOCUMENTATION usually appears in parentheses at the point where it's cited or in an endnote or a footnote. Complete documentation usually appears as a list of WORKS CITED or REFERENCES at the end of the text. Documentation styles vary by discipline. See also APA STYLE ; MLA STYLE CONCLUSION, 92, 211, 417-18 The way a text ends, a chance to leave an AUDIENCE thinking about what's been said.

Some ways of concluding an essay: REITERATING your point, discussing the implications of your ARGUMENT , proposing some kind of action, inviting response. REVISING, 93-94 The process of making substantive changes, including additions and deletions, to a DRAFT so that it contains all the necessary information in an appropriate organization. Revision generally moves from whole-text issues to details with the goals of sharpening the focus and strengthening the ARGUMENT .

See also response and revision SUMMARY/RESPONSE, 203-22 A GENRE of writing that conveys a text's main ideas in condensed form and engages with those ideas by ARGUING a position, ANALYZING the text, or REFLECTING on what it says. Key Features: identification of the author and title - a concise summary - an explicit response - support for your response SUMMARIZE To use your own words and sentence structure to condense someone else's text into a version that gives the main ideas of the original.

In academic writing, summarizing requires DOCUMENTATION . See PATCHWRITING AN OP-ED, AND A RESPONSE This chapter concludes with an essay written by Julia Latrice Johnson, a student at North Carolina A &T State University.

Following the guidelines in this chapter, she responded to a New York Times op-ed about the college admissions scandal of 2019, in which dozens of wealthy parents, celebrities, and coaches were involved in a nationwide fraud and bribery scheme that resulted in some students getting into the colleges of their dreams because of their parents' checkbooks rather than their own work or talent. As you might expect, response to this scandal was swift, especially among college students.

First comes the Times piece, and then comes the summary/response essay. RAINESFORD STAUFFER I Learned in College That Admission Has Always Been for Sale Rainesford Stauffer is a writer whose work has been published in the New York Times , the Atlantic , GQ , and Teen Vogue . She is the author of An Ordinary Age , a book about the challenges of young adulthood in the United States. The piece here was first published in the Times in 2019.

Shortly after my freshman year of college, when I was debating whether to transfer to another college or drop out and venture into the work force sans degree, I met with an older friend who had attended an Ivy League-adjacent school. I wanted her advice on whether to apply to her alma mater. I'd love it there, she assured me, with one caveat: You have to be really smart, she said. It became evident that her smart and my smart were different things.

She casually rattled off hours she'd logged with a personalized standardized test tutor, paid to boost her score. Her parents opted not to pay an editor to work with her on her application essay, but plenty of her classmates' families had. I suddenly felt as though I'd failed a test I didn't know I was taking. I was even more gobsmacked when I realized how common her experience was. Asking around, I learned that a subset of my peers had been carefully groomed with tools I hadn't even known existed.

I came to realize that my A in Literature from my freshman year and a job between classes and on weekends were not going to compete with pedigrees buffed to application perfection thanks to highly compensated college admissions coaches. I did end up transferring, not to my friend's school but to The New School, where I finished my degree remotely while working full time, and I graduated in January 2017.

Now I talk to young people, including my own sister, who agonize over the fact that no matter how hard they study, they will never compete with students who have test and application boosts. Even so, I know I've enjoyed benefits that many other students haven't because I'm white and have parents who are college graduates. I'm more angry on behalf of those with fewer resources than me who have to compete with those gaming the system.

So when news broke that celebrities, top university coaches and other ultrarich individuals were accused by the Justice Department of engaging in college admissions bribery, my initial thought was that this latest round of revelations is no more abhorrent than what happens every day. It's obviously a scandal when rich people are accused of breaking the law to get their kids into top schools.

But the bigger outrage should be that a legal version of purchasing an advantage happens every college application season and that there's an entire industry supporting it. Anyone can see the kinds of things outlined in the indictment-bribes paid by wealthy parents in exchange for their children's admission to top universities, and accompanying schemes to secure athletics scholarships for teens who didn't even play high school sports-are unacceptable.

But what about the standardized test prep industry, worth around $840 million, which involves parents forking over up to $200 an hour for Ivy League tutors tasked with increasing their children's scores. That doesn't include application essay writers, who coach students on what to write about, edit their writing and, in some cases, write for them. It doesn't include college coaching firms, which charge up to $40,000 to strategize an applicant's entire process.

Donations made to schools by the parents of legacy students can essentially buy acceptance letters. Meanwhile, there are some students who don't have a parent to skim their essay for typos or can't afford to pay to enroll in a prep course or to repeatedly take a standardized test until their score rises.

Natasha Warikoo, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education and the author of The Diversity Bargain, says while there's no debate that the actions the people involved in this week's admissions scandal are accused of are reprehensible, there's actually very little agreement among Americans or admissions officers about what is and isn't O.K. in terms of application assistance.

A fair system to me would produce an outcome in which people who are selected are representative of 18-year-olds overall in the United States, Ms. Warikoo said, noting that while wealthy students are overrepresented, working class and poor students, black, Latino, Native American and first generation students are underrepresented on most campuses.

We don't have consensus in the United States about what is a fair system of selection. If you had to design a system that would give rich, white kids the best odds of getting into prestigious colleges and universities, look no further than the current system, said Nikhil Goyal, author of Schools on Trial and a doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge.

His research has found that universities ending legacy admissions and making standardized tests optional would boost class and racial diversity and signal to youth that their worth is less defined by test scores and more by their creativity and passions. It's no coincidence that one of these can be bought: the test scores. Creativity and passion cannot.

Perhaps it wouldn't sting so much if we scrapped the college rankings, or if we didn't bill college as the foremost experience for young people, one that sets the tone for their entire lives. This newest admissions scandal is infuriating, but the ongoing, perfectly legal one that lets wealthy families pay for the things that lead to greater chances of admission hurts even more.

It sends a message to any student who can't take advantage of the current system that no matter how hard he or she has worked, it will always be possible for someone else to buy a better life. A STUDENT SUMMARY/RESPONSE ESSAY JULIA LATRICE JOHNSON Can Money Buy Almost Anything? Julia Latrice Johnson is a student at North Carolina A &T State University, where she's majoring in English and African American Literature. After completing college, she hopes to pursue graduate study in linguistics.

Her eventual goal is to help instructors learn to be more effective teachers of students who speak multiple languages and dialects. Title and opening sentence pose provocative questions that get readers' attention. What do you do when you desire to further your education, but your writing sucks? You know that there are better writers out there because they all have received acceptance letters from colleges where personal statements are a requirement.

But how would you feel if you knew that those writers had professional tutors and editors to fix and maybe even write their work? This was the frustration described by Rainesford Stauffer in her New York Times op-ed, I Learned in College That Admission Has Always Been for Sale. Summarizes major ideas in the op-ed.

Stauffer speaks distinctively about privilege-her own privilege in being white and having parents who graduated from college, and the privilege of others who have monetary advantages that essentially buy acceptance letters. Paid tutors and admission essay editors can help buy college admission. Rich parents who bribe admission officers can buy college admission. Rich parents who donate large sums of money can buy college admission.

Quotes a memorable statement to underscore the unfairness Stauffer is concerned with. Stauffer makes it her business to talk to students who cannot buy admission and who agonize over the fact that no matter how hard they study, they will never compete with students who have test and application boosts. Those boosts include essay editing, test tutoring, and admission coaching, advantages paid for by parents with money. All are common practices, and perfectly legal.

Lori Loughlin departing from federal court, April 2019. Leaving her own opinion out, focuses on what motivated Stauffer to write her op-ed. Bribery, however, is not legal-but still practiced. Stauffer describes rich people . . . breaking the law to get their kids into top schools as an unacceptable scandal that sparked outrage. But even worse, she says, are the legal ways of buying advantages: the tutors and editors and coaches and large donations.

What most enrages Stauffer is that it's an unfair system, one that privileges wealthy students but that works against working class and poor students, black, Latino, Native American, and first generation students. Opens her response by giving her own first reaction to the op-ed. Reading Stauffer's article made me think of Lori Loughlin, Aunt Becky from Full House , one of the actresses currently involved in the admissions scandal.

She and her husband have been accused of paying over a half million dollars to secure their daughters' admission to the University of Southern California (USC). Perhaps in response, Dr. Dre, rapper, producer, and another celebrity parent, took to Instagram to congratulate his daughter on her acceptance to college while also making note of the recent college scandal: My daughter got accepted into USC all on her own. No jail time!! ! (qtd. in Amiri). And yet . . .

while he may not have bribed the admissions team, his daughter still had advantages other students did not thanks to her father's $70 million donations to USC. The only difference between Lori Loughlin and Dr. Dre is that he wrote his check as a donation and she wrote hers to an organization that paid USC to admit her daughter. Both famous parents exhibit privilege that screams for attention and response. Dr. Dre and his daughter.

Offers her own experience as an example of what students without privilege do to get into college. Stauffer's article also puts into perspective a part of college that not many people can bring themselves to discuss. There are advantages that certain individuals have. I did not have such advantages. I did not have access to paid tutors or essay editors. I had to study and write on my own and pray that my parents were not too tired after long days at work to help me edit my essays.

And I have had to focus in on what I can do myself rather than thinking about the unfair advantages others have. Despite not having any particular advantages, much less donating a million dollars, I was still able to gain admission to Coastal Carolina University and even to pursue a second degree at North Carolina A &T State University. Michelle Obama speaking at North Carolina A &T State University. Considers the op-ed in broader context, noting how others may respond to it.

This article will probably get multiple responses, depending on the readers. One response, similar to Stauffer's and my own, will most likely be shared widely among the many students who do not have access to the advantages wealthy people have, but are still working as hard as they can to get to where they hope to be. Another response may possibly come from students who are okay with the scholastic advantages they have because of their parents' money.

And there will probably be a lot of privileged students who see nothing wrong with their parents using their money as a means of admission, but who still choose to work hard and go the extra mile to not have mommy or daddy's money follow them throughout life. Introduces major claim and supports it with evidence from the op-ed. In any case, it is not the fault of students, whether they have certain advantages or not.

It's the system that is unfair in granting opportunities to some students just because their parents can buy them. Stauffer is right to be angry on behalf of those with fewer resources than she has who have to compete with those gaming the system. Reflects on what the op-ed has helped her realize about her own experience. The system is unfair.

Knowing that I may be refused admission in favor of those with rich parents or those who have essentially had the work done for them might discourage me from even applying to certain schools. Realizing that my hard work and that of my parents can be overshadowed by other people's money is disheartening, and yet it also leads me to constantly persevere in my studies. Concludes by articulating the lesson she learned from reading this op-ed.

What resonated with me the most in Stauffer's article comes at the very end when she says that the way college admission works now sends a message to any student who can't take advantage of the current system that no matter how hard he or she has worked, it will always be possible for someone else to buy a better life. Any students who pride themselves on grasping and mastering any concept, including the college admission process, have reason to resent those who have been fortunate enough to have college and other such things gifted to them.

Speaking for myself, however, knowing that anything I achieve is the result of my own hard work is highly rewarding, and that is one of the most important lessons that I learned from reading Rainesford Stauffer's op-ed. Works Cited Amiri, Farnoush. Dr. Dre Deletes Post about Daughter's Acceptance to USC after $70M Donation Resurfaces. NBC News , 25 Mar. 2019, www.nbcnews.com/2019/3/25/.../dr-dre-deletes-post-about-daughter-s-acceptance- usc-after-n986906. Stauffer, Rainesford.

I Learned in College That Admission Has Always Been for Sale. The New York Times , 13 Mar. 2019, www.newyorktimes.com/2019/03/13/opinion/college-admission-scandal-celebrities. html. Thinking about the Text 1. What is the main ARGUMENT that Julia Johnson is making in response to Rainesford Stauffer's op-ed? 2. How does Johnson support that point? How does she use her own experience to support her argument? 3. What do you think makes Johnson's OPENING especially effective (or not)? 4.

What do the three VISUALS add to the effectiveness of her response? 5. Write a letter responding to Johnson in which you share your own thoughts or experiences about the college admissions process. REFLECT! Think about Rainesford Stauffer 's and Julia Johnson 's experiences with college admissions. How do your own experiences compare with theirs? What do you think about Stauffer's claim that college is always for sale?

Key Features: an explicit POSITION - a response to what others have said - appropriate background information - a clear indication of why the topic matters - good REASONS and EVIDENCE - attention to more than one POINT OF VIEW - an authoritative TONE - an appeal to readers' values OPENING, 146, 410-12 The way a text begins, which plays an important role in drawing an AUDIENCE in.

Some ways of beginning an essay: with a dramatic or deceptively simple statement, with something others have said about your topic, with a provocative question or a startling CLAIM , or with an ANECDOTE . VISUALS, 455-57, 459-67 Photos, graphs, maps, diagrams, pie charts, tables, videos, and other images. Visuals can be used to support or illustrate a point and also to present information that is easier to understand in a chart or graph than it would be in a paragraph.

Endnotes Names author and title in the first paragraph. Return to text PART 3 WRITING / MAKE YOUR POINT Chapter 13 Writing in Multiple Modes THIS IS A TIME FOR EXPLORATION, FOR EXPERIMENTATION: WHEN WE CAN CREATE AND RISK, WRITE GRAFFITI ON THE WALLS AND COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES. . . . -ADAM BANKS Check out an article or blog post on the web and you will probably find links to videos, databases, and other sources.

Go to a sales presentation and you will no doubt encounter a speaker using slides and maybe audio or video clips-or even a print handout. Attend a poster session on campus and you'll see student presenters offering infographics that they introduce and then answer questions about. Read a film review online and you'll probably be able to click on a link to watch a trailer.

Even a traditional essay assignment may call on you to use photos or drawings and to provide other information visually in pie charts or graphs. That's writing in multiple modes. In some ways, writing in multiple modes is nothing new: just google illustrated manuscripts and maps, for example, and you'll find pages with decorative initials and miniature drawings written over a thousand years ago.

And today writers can produce texts that combine words, images, colors, sounds, and even videos-and that can be delivered through print, spoken, and digital media. This chapter will help you take advantage of the opportunities offered by writing in multiple modes-so get ready to deliver your messages as you've never delivered them before! A GUIDE TO WRITING IN MULTIPLE MODES Students tell me that they love doing multimodal projects. They say they're a lot of work, but a whole lot of fun.

This guide will help you do the work-and have some fun! Identify a topic You may be assigned a topic, but if you get to choose, start by making a list of questions that really intrigue you, questions you really want to answer. Chances are one of these questions will lead you to an important topic, one that you care about and that will bring out the best in you as a thinker. Vrinda Vasavada had been reading a lot online about how much we are controlled by our phones and other devices.

The more she thought about it, the more she wondered whether tech addiction was actually a problem-and if so, what we should do about it. She decided that this topic-which was certainly timely and potentially very important-was worth investigating. But her assignment was to write using multiple modes, and so she then needed to consider what modes (and what media) she would work with.

After talking with her instructor and assessing the resources available, Vasavada decided to prepare an oral presentation and assumed it would likely include print or digital materials. Her multimodal project was on the way! A page from a 1511 Book of Hours, a medieval prayer book. Think about your rhetorical situation Multimodal writing calls for the same close attention to rhetorical principles that all writing and speaking do.

Whatever your topic, you need to think carefully about your purpose, audience, stance, context, and genre-in addition to modes and media. Purpose . What are your goals for this project: To fulfill an assignment? To raise awareness about a problem? To convince others to support a cause? To provide information? Ask yourself what you want to happen as a result of your project; what actions do you want to see taken, or what ideas do you hope to convey?

What modes and media will be most useful for achieving your goals? Audience . Whom do you want to reach? What are they likely to know about your topic, and what background information will you need to provide? Will they be interested in your topic-and if not, are there certain modes that will get them interested-photos? music? a provocative title? If you want to reach students on your campus, then you might choose an online campus bulletin board or Facebook group.

If your audience is limited to people you know, you may be able to make some assumptions about what they're likely to respond to-but most projects you put online may well be seen by people you don't know, so you can't make any such assumptions. Finally, consider how you can make your project accessible to those who have limited vision or hearing. Do you need to provide ALT TEXT ? Stance .

What's your attitude toward your topic, and how do you want to present yourself to your audience-as a well-informed observer? a stern critic? a puzzled inquirer trying to figure something out? Then consider how you will reflect that stance: For an oral presentation, what facial expressions and gestures will convey your stance? What will you wear? For written projects, think about what fonts and tone will help establish your stance. Genre .

The kind of text you're writing may affect the modes you can or should use. If you're ANALYZING a scientific text or REPORTING information, you may have reason to present data visually, in graphs or pie charts. If you're writing a NARRATIVE , you may want to add photos or include some dialogue in audio. If you're making an ARGUMENT in a print essay, you might want to choose a font and write in a manner that reflects the seriousness of your subject. Context .

When is the project due, and can you manage to complete the project you have in mind in the time available? What resources will you need to complete the project? What modes would you like to use? If you plan to give an oral presentation, make sure to check out the space and equipment that will be there and find out what you will need to bring (a laptop and a particular dongle, an easel to display photographs, and so on). Medium and design . How will your project be delivered-in print? online? as a speech?

or through some combination of media? How does the medium affect the way it will be designed and the modes you can or cannot use? Will you be able to include images? audio? video? links to other sources?

Consider the modes you could use Rhetorician Cynthia Selfe identifies five modes that writers and speakers can use to convey our messages: Linguistic -words, titles, headings, captions, ALT TEXT Visual -photos, drawings, charts, graphs, colors, fonts Audio -speech, spoken dialogue, sounds, music, tone of voice Gestural -facial expressions, body language Spatial -how text and visuals are arranged on page or screen Your media will dictate which modes you will be able to use-you can't include audio in a print text, right?-but your AUDIENCE and PURPOSE will often determine which modes you will want to use.

Take a look at the following passage from an article about Olympic gymnast Simone Biles that depends entirely on words. On Sunday, during the all-around, Simone Biles, her hair trailing behind her like an exclamation point, became the first woman to perform a triple-double-two flips and three twists-in competition during a floor routine. Only a few men can do it, and the way Biles does it is better than the way most of them do. The triple-double is so difficult that U.S.A.

Gymnastics has argued that a new tier needs to be added to the code of points, gymnastics' rule book, to account for it. -LOUISA THOMAS, The Unlimited Greatness of Simone Biles Now let's see how this passage might be brought more fully to life by using additional modes. You could use the visual mode, for example, by including an image like the one shown here.

As for the audio mode, how about an audio clip of her talking about how she learned to do a triple-double-or the roar of the audience as she does a perfect landing? And just imagine the ways you could use the gestural mode: you could link to a video of her doing a triple-double, showing her facial expressions as she flips and twists-or as she breaks into a big smile when she lands. Finally comes the spatial mode. How might you arrange the various modes?

You could start with the words and then add an image or a video to illustrate what you say. Or you could do the reverse: start with an image showing Simone Biles doing a triple-double, and then describe with words what it was that she did, and what an astounding accomplishment it was. Simone Biles warms up, 2019. REFLECT! Select something you've written recently that uses words only, and think about how you could use additional modes to expand, illustrate, or elaborate on what you wrote. Try doing it!

And then write a paragraph or so comparing the two versions. Which one do you prefer, and why? Choose a primary medium of delivery Most multimodal projects have at their core one medium of delivery-oral, print, or digital. Class presentations, for example, are primarily oral, though the spoken words can be enhanced by print text (handouts) or digital ones (audio or video clips; PowerPoint slides).

An informative REPORT , on the other hand, might be primarily a print text, though one augmented with images, charts, graphs, or other visual material. A BLOG will always be delivered digitally, though it can include links to both oral and print texts. Spend some time, then, thinking about how best to deliver your message to your particular audience.

Explore your topic, do some research Whether your primary medium is print, spoken, or digital, you'll need to immerse yourself in your topic, exploring it in various ways and likely doing some research. Your goal is to examine the topic from multiple PERSPECTIVES , not only to understand the topic but to be aware of the conversation surrounding it, of who's talking about it and what they're saying. Here too you can use various modes to explore a topic.

You might start by FREEWRITING about the topic or even try drawing a picture of it. If your topic is a current issue, there may be a podcast about it. And there could also be some people on campus with expertise in the topic who you could interview. For her project about tech addiction, Vrinda Vasavada found information in a number of databases available through her university's library, in several blogs and podcasts, and from some interviews. For more detail on exploring a topic, see pp. 82-83 .

Come up with a working thesis Once you have some idea about what you want to say about your topic, take some time to craft a working thesis, a clear statement identifying the topic and the claim you will make about it. Keep in mind that this THESIS may well change (and get better and more precise!) as you continue to work. See pp. 84-89 for detail on coming up with a thesis. Vrinda Vasavada began with a nagging question about whether tech addiction was real.

As she researched the topic, she found more and more evidence to support the fact that such behavior is indeed evident in many people who devote a lot of time to their phones and other devices. But she dug deeper still, looking at the causes of such addiction and at ways of addressing the problem.

Here's the thesis she began with: Tech addiction is a verifiable phenomenon, and while users can work to limit their screen time, it is the responsibility of tech companies to make design choices that prioritize user health. Whatever media you're using, you need to make your major point very clear. Don't make your audience search for it! In a spoken presentation, you'll want to state your thesis clearly up front, at the beginning of your talk.

You may want to put it on a slide so that your audience will both hear it and see it. You have more options in a print text: you may state your claim in your introduction, but sometimes you may have reason to withhold it until further into your text. Ways of providing evidence As with any text, a multimodal one will be only as good as the information you put in it. But a multimodal text gives you many ways to present that information. You can present data in a paragraph-or on a line graph.

You can describe something with words, or with an image-or even a video. If you want to compare two things, you can do so with words alone, but you can also make the comparison easy to see and understand with a bar graph or pie chart. And think of all you can link to in a digital text. Vrinda Vasavada presented much of the evidence for her project about tech addiction in words, both written and spoken.

But in her spoken presentation (and the video which was then posted online), she highlighted key questions and points on slides, making it easy for her audience to follow her thoughts. Organize carefully Multimodal projects include a number of different elements, which must be carefully organized. In fact, you may well be organizing throughout the process of developing a multimodal project.

You might start with a stack of sticky notes, jotting down major points, evidence, images, video and audio clips on each note, which you can then organize and arrange as they'll be used. One of my students likes to use 3-by-5 cards, each card with a main point or idea, and then tape them together in a chain to spread out on the floor.

Going from top to bottom, one card at a time, lets this student see all the points and whether they follow logically from one to another or need to be rearranged, revised, and so on. For a video essay, you might start out with a STORYBOARD , sketching in the parts of your project so that you can see how they fit together logically and systematically. For an audio essay, you'd likely develop a script that accounts for both words and any other sounds.

For print texts, you might use a good old OUTLINE , making major points heads and supporting points subheads. How to begin? Whether your text is delivered in a print document, a speech, or online, it has to begin somewhere. Whatever the medium, you might begin with a provocative question or quotation, or by summarizing what's been said about your topic and then responding with what you think-and these are all strategies that work in any medium.

But when you're writing with multiple modes, you have some additional options. In a presentation, for example, you could not only begin by asking a question-you could have the question on a slide, in large type. Even better, you could then pause to give your audience a chance to respond to the question. And imagine you're writing a digital narrative about a frisky little dog. You could start by saying, Once upon a time, I had a frisky little dog.

His name was Gus. You might insert a photo of him right there-or even better, a video of him chasing a ball. And if your text lets readers decide where to begin, you'll want to have a menu with a button that says Introduction. These are just some ideas; the point is that multiple modalities present a number of ways to get an audience's attention. Ways of beginning are covered on pp. 85 and 410-12 . How to conclude?

Whatever your medium, you can conclude by summing up your argument, explaining what you hope your audience will take from what you've written or said, or call for some kind of action. You can also invite response. If you're giving an oral presentation, you'll probably follow that by saying thank you and then asking if there are any questions. If you're writing on the web, you can add your email address or Twitter handle and invite readers to respond.

You can even invite response in a print document; you've had your say, so let readers know that you'd like to know what they think and would welcome their response. Ways of ending are covered on pp. 92 and 417-18 . Don't forget transitions While you may understand precisely how the parts of anything you write fit together, you need to make certain that those reading and especially those listening will be able to follow what you say.

This means providing explicit transitions from point to point, and explicit references in your text to any images, audio or video clips, and other elements. Transitions are words like first , then , also , and for example that smooth the way for your audience to follow your argument and move from point to point. See p. 424 for a list of common transitions. To provide a transition from paragraph to paragraph, you can also write a sentence that links the two.

For example: If young people are too dependent on their phones for getting information, they also depend on them to stay connected to friends. In this transition sentence, the first part refers back to what has just been discussed (dependence on phones for information) and then forecasts what is coming up next (dependence on phones for friendship).

For multimodal projects, transitions need to be even more explicit: you can't just insert an audio clip into a digital report, for example, and assume that your audience will know why the audio clip is there and what it contributes to the overall point you're making.

Just as you would use a signal phrase to introduce a quotation in a print essay (they declared, the author responded), you need to introduce images, audio or video clips, or other such elements explicitly (Figure 1 shows---, as you'll hear in the following audio clip). You also need to explain explicitly what they add to your overall point (this graph demonstrates my point that---, as you can see in this brief video).

The best way to be sure that your organization works, that all the parts fit together smoothly and your transitions are explicit enough, is to try it out on a friend or classmate, asking them if they can follow what you say. And ask them directly if there's any place where they got confused, needed a clearer transition, or anything else. Document sources As with any academic assignment, you should document any sources you refer to or cite.

For projects that are delivered in print, this means including a list of works cited ( MLA ) or references ( APA ). And for digital projects, you can simply link to the sources you've used, enabling readers who want to check them out to do so. For presentations, oral or digital, this usually means including a slide at the end that lists all sources; you might also distribute this list in print, as a handout. REFLECT!

This is a time for exploration, for experimentation: when we can create and risk, write graffiti on the walls and color outside the lines. . . . we must expand our notion of academic discourse. That's a challenge that professor Adam Banks issued to an audience of college writing teachers. How would you answer his challenge? Find a piece of academic writing you have done, and then imagine how you could rewrite it using multiple modes.

Describe that revised piece in a brief paragraph, and explain what you especially like about it. Glossary ALT TEXT, 227, 466 A way of describing images in digital texts for readers who are visually impaired or whose computers do not display images. ANALYSIS, 132-56 A GENRE of writing in which you look at what a text says and how it says it.

Key Features: a SUMMARY of a text or other subject - attention to CONTEXT - a clear INTERPRETATION or judgment - reasonable support for your conclusions REPORT, 157-85 A GENRE of writing that presents information to inform readers on a subject. Key Features: a topic carefully focused for a specific AUDIENCE - definitions of key terms - trustworthy information - appropriate organization and DESIGN - a confident TONE that informs rather than argues.

See also IMRAD ; PROFILE NARRATIVE, 186-202 A GENRE that tells a story for the PURPOSE of making a point. Key Features: a clearly defined event - a clearly described setting - vivid, descriptive details - a consistent POINT OF VIEW - a clear point. Also a strategy for presenting information as a story, for telling what happened. When used in an essay, narration is used to support a point-not merely to tell an interesting story for its own sake.

Narration can serve as the organizing principle for a paragraph or an entire text. See also LITERACY NARRATIVE ARGUMENT, 99-131 Any text that makes a CLAIM supported by REASONS and EVIDENCE . A GENRE that uses REASONS and EVIDENCE to support a CLAIM .

Key Features: an explicit POSITION - a response to what others have said - appropriate background information - a clear indication of why the topic matters - good REASONS and EVIDENCE - attention to more than one POINT OF VIEW - an authoritative TONE - an appeal to readers' values ALT TEXT, 227, 466 A way of describing images in digital texts for readers who are visually impaired or whose computers do not display images.

AUDIENCE, 25-26 Those to whom a text is directed-the people who read, listen to, or view the text. Audience is a key part of any RHETORICAL SITUATION . PURPOSE, 25 In writing, your goal: to explore a topic, to express an opinion, to entertain, to report information, to persuade, and so on. Purpose is one element of the RHETORICAL SITUATION . REPORT, 157-85 A GENRE of writing that presents information to inform readers on a subject.

Key Features: a topic carefully focused for a specific AUDIENCE - definitions of key terms - trustworthy information - appropriate organization and DESIGN - a confident TONE that informs rather than argues. See also IMRAD ; PROFILE BLOG, 496-98 From web + log , blogs are sites that focus on topics of all kinds. Blogs are regularly updated, usually strike an informal TONE , and include a space where readers can respond. PERSPECTIVES, 90-91, 29-41 Viewpoints, an important part of a writer's STANCE .

As a writer and a researcher, you should always strive to seek, think about, and work to understand multiple perspectives. FREEWRITING, 82 A process for GENERATING IDEAS AND TEXT by writing continuously for several minutes without pausing to read what has been written. STORYBOARD, 194, 232 A series of sketches used in planning a film or video essay to map out the sequence of camera shots, movement, and action. OUTLINING, 194 A process for GENERATING IDEAS AND TEXT or for examining a text.

An informal outline simply lists ideas and then numbers them in the order that they will appear; a working outline distinguishes support from main ideas by indenting the former; a formal outline is arranged as a series of headings and indented subheadings, each on a separate line, with letters and numbers indicating relative levels of importance. MLA STYLE, 305-56 A system of DOCUMENTATION established by the Modern Language Association and used in the humanities.

APA STYLE, 357-403 A system of DOCUMENTATION used in the social sciences. APA stands for the American Psychological Association. THESIS, 84-85 A statement that identifies the topic and main point of a piece of writing, giving readers an idea of what the text will cover. A MULTIMODAL PROJECT IN THREE MEDIA VRINDA VASAVADA Is Addicted the New Normal?

Fighting Tech Addiction Vrinda Vasavada, who is studying computer science and economics at Stanford, created a multimodal project for her second-year rhetoric and writing class. Her assignment began with a research-based argument, delivered as a print document that included some illustrations. She then developed an oral presentation with PowerPoint slides on the same topic. Finally, her presentation was videotaped and posted to the web as a digital text.