1.
Do you agree or disagree with Bazerman’s claim
that all text is indeed multimodal? Explain…
2.
“When we read the words that come
from the bodies of our students, we read those bodies as well, and by reading
those bodies we also read the words they present to us; some may bear/bare
stigmas, some may not and be coded as white” (Inoue, 144). When dealing with
language practices of speech and writing where do you fall on the debate that
the engrained white voice should no longer dominant discourse, thus allowing
for individuals to express in their own codes? Should all vernacular be
accepted across genres? How do you plan on approaching the whiteness of
academic language in your own classroom?
Hi Sidney,
ReplyDeleteWhile I can agree with Bazerman's claims that many texts we don't usually think of as multimodal are actually exactly that I'm not sure I can agree that all texts are multimodal. The tradition of texts being multimodal is an old one (as he correctly points out tracing all the way back to Rome's orators) but can we really claim that something as nebulous as a written text's "texture" constitutes a second mode (42)? I think that there might be a point at which the term mode is being assigned to what are actually just aspects of a larger composition. I am unsure of what will happen if we continue to break apart modes into smaller and smaller parts as the dvision of alphanumeric text as a mode into parts such as, word, texture, diction, spaceing, and font, seems to be more preconditions to the mode that is textual communication than modes in and of themselves. Now, that does not mean that the textual mode cannot be adapted to use other modes. That is very clearly the something that writers are doing more and more often. Even if I don't agree with the assertion that all texts are multimodel that does not mean I disagree with Bazerman's larger points on multimodality. I do believe that instructors are not using the term as widely as they should - and that by helping our students understand multimodality in one space they might see ways that it is useful in other, non classroom, spaces as well.
Hi Sydney,
ReplyDeleteI think that, for better or worse, we find ourselves in an educational landscape thats been dominated and defined by white ideals of quality. I think it would be great if we could do away with the dominance it holds in our English programs, but I would caution against completely trying to do away with qualitative value systems altogether (as Inoue suggests). I think a range of vernacular should always be permissible, and in my classrooms I plan to encourage students to write how they speak, even if that includes profanity which may not be deemed formally appropriate in all circumstances.