Introduction

Design Theory and Multimodal Consulting

Lindsay A. Sabatino Wagner College

As Brian and I sat down to discuss this book, we explored the different theoretical underpinnings that inform our concepts about multiliteracies, multimodality, and digital composing. We recognized that writing centers are increasingly becoming sites for feedback on multimodal projects, especially as educators are expanding their concepts of literacy to encompass "the burgeoning variety of text forms associated with information and multimedia technologies" (Cazden et al. 1996, 61). More specifically, instructors are including assignments that ask students to negotiate multiple modes (words, images, colors, gestures, movement) in order to communicate effectively to their audiences. An interdisciplinary group of scholars called the New London Group encourages more comprehensive understandings of literacy, especially in light of all the means of communication available to us in today's culturally and linguistically diverse world. Simply put, they explain that "new communication media are reshaping the way we use language" (64). Given that consultants are in the writing business, as Jackie Grutsch McKinney (2014) reminds us, and that the business of writing is evolving, we must prepare to work with students being asked to explore new ways of communicating and thinking about language use. Moreover, we believe multimodal composing provides consultants with an opportunity to expand the ways writers think about language and connecting to audiences. The multiliteracy center John Trimbur (2000) imagined as a place where consultants will begin seeing assignments that move beyond the printed text is upon us. This collection is designed to prepare consultants to offer feedback on those projects by providing them with an overview of visual and audio design principles, the rhetorical nature of multimodal composing, and a variety of multimodal genres.

Given this starting point, we specifically found ourselves drawn to concepts put forth by the New London Group, Claire Wyatt-Smith and Kay Kimber, the Gestalt principles of design, and Theo van Leeuwen's sound theory. Through this book, we aim to pull from the New London Group's emphasis on six design elements in the meaning-making process: "Linguistic Meaning, Visual Meaning, Audio Meaning, Gestural Meaning, Spatial Meaning, and the Multimodal patterns of meaning that relate the first five modes of meaning to each other" (Cazden et al. 1996, 65). By critically examining these six meaning-making elements, consultants can assist writers as they learn how to effectively compose projects that explore the use of multiple modes:

• linguistic meaning — "emphasi[s on] the productive and innovative potential of language as a meaning-making system" (79) that has linguistic features including delivery, vocabulary, positioning, word choice, information structures, and the overall organizational properties of the text

• visual meaning — colors, images, font, page layout, perspective, and screen formats

• audio meaning — noise, music, and sound effects

• gestural meaning — body language, behavior, and sensuality

• spatial meaning — the arrangement of elements on a physical plane, environmental spaces and architectural spaces

• multimodal — the dynamic relationship among all these modes

Meaning is shaped by the interaction among the different modes (linguistic, visual, audio, gestural, spatial, and multimodal) and how they are combined to create a message. How these modes are used or implemented to shape meaning depends on the modal affordances (Wyatt-Smith and Kimber 2009). These affordances refer to the potentials and limitations for a particular mode. According to Carey Jewitt (2013), affordance "is a complex concept connected to both the material and cultural, social and historical use of a mode. Modal affordance is shaped by how a mode has been used, what it has been repeatedly used to mean and do and the social conventions that inform its use in context" (254). Understanding modal affordances provides consultants with opportunities to discuss the social conventions surrounding modes and how the possibilities of the mode impact the ways writers communicate. For example, as Wyatt-Smith and Kimber (2009) explain, "The affordance of still images are governed by the logic of space and simultaneity, while the affordance of speech is governed by temporal logic" (76). It is difficult to avoid the logic of time sequence when dealing with speech because "one sound is uttered after another, one word after another, one syntactic and textual element after another" (Jewitt 2013, 254). Images, on the other hand, have an impact based on the time, setting, and context in which they are taken and viewed. Images can also be influenced by the material in which they are presented, such as through a screen or on a poster. Therefore, the use of particular modes shapes the meaning of the message in ways other modes might not.

In order to create unity within a text, cohesion must occur. Cohesion "refers to the ways in which the selected visual, verbal and even aural elements are displayed and combined to achieve unity. Headings, sub-headings, lexical choices and cohesive ties directly affect cognitive structuring and meaning-making" (Wyatt-Smith and Kimber 2009, 78). Writers can create greater cohesion by taking into account the individual modal affordances, as well as the meaning created through the combination of those modes. Effective communication involves the meaning-making process that occurs across multiple modes. We use these concepts of multimodality and the meaning-making process from the New London Group and Wyatt-Smith and Kimber to provide consultants an opportunity to...