Writing Center

University of Mississippi

Multimodal Guide

All Writing and Rhetoric courses have at least one multimodal component. This page will help you learn more about multimodality, and will include links to videos and how-to guides for using the various digital tools you might want to pursue for your multimodal project.

What is Multimodality?

Literally, “multimodal” means more than one mode. For your purposes, that means the process of changing the form of an idea you’ve written in an essay.

  • Multimodal composition asks you to think “outside the box”—in other words, you must make rhetorical considerations beyond static words on a printed page.
  • Multimodal composition helps you develop a better sense of a real audience—it’s easier for you to conceptualize the audience for a video or a podcast than an audience for a typographic essay.
  • Multimodal composition gives you more a versatile and real-world skill set that is applicable outside of college.
  • Multimodal composition forces you to “remediate” content. Remediation is everywhere—think about online newspapers, or e-books. We now see remediated content remediated further—think about “video podcasts.”
Video

Video projects in Writing and Rhetoric courses take a number of forms. You might be asked to create an image essay, a mini-documentary, a product pitch or a public service announcement based on earlier writing you completed for the course. There are many affordances (and challenges) that come with video production. This page will provide links to resources and tutorials to help you become an expert multimodal video producer.

General Tutorials

Equipment

Software & Tools

  • youtube-dl 
    Command-line tool to download videos from YouTube and most other streaming video sites
  • Screencast-O-Matic
    Record your screen and upload your screencast to Youtube
  • Audacity
    Open-sourced audio editing
  • Animoto
    Web-based tool for making images essays, limited version is free

Audio

Sometimes we overlook audio when considering all the different possibilities for multimodal composition. Even though video production is a lot easier than it used to be, don’t forget about the rich possibilities for composing with sound. Common multimodal projects that use audio include podcasts, public service announcements (PSAs), and oral histories. This page will help you find and use resources as you work with sound.

Tutorials

Equipment

Software & Tools

Graphic Design

Your multimodal project might be an exercise in visual argument, where you envision your composition as a visual remix or retelling of an original essay. There are a number of tools and resources available on the internet to help you develop this kind of project.

Software

  • GiMP
    GNU Image Manipulation Tool. An open-source (free) alternative to Photoshop
  • Inkscape
    An open-source alternative to Adobe Illustrator
  • PixLr
    iOS and Android based photo editing tool
  • DAZ Studio
    Design 3D characters and figure art
  • Blender
    3D Graphic Design tool

Web Tools

  • Pixton
    Pixton is a tool for creating comic strips. When you sign up, you get a 7-day free trial of Pixton+, which has extra features.
  • Strip Generator
    A free tool for creating abstract/minimalist comic strips.
  • BitStrips
    Design Bit-Strip comics and link them to social media.
  • ToonDoo
    Another tool for generating and sharing comic strips.
  • Google Charts/Data
    A useful tool for data visualization.
  • Vizualize.me
    Create infographics and data visualizations.
  • Easel.ly
    Easily create and share visual information.
  • Piktochart
    Create various types of infographics for free.
  • Infogram
    Create infographics and data visualizations.
  • Sway
    Create and share interactive texts using different types of documents.

Resources

  • Finda.photo
    Find free public domain images that can be used for anything you want.

Web

Composing for the web and making websites can be very rewarding ways to explore multimodality. There are myriad tools available for you to build a webpage at any skill level. This kind of multimodal project really asks you to think about what hypertext means, and how it works. How does the arrangement of text on the web differ from text on a printed page? What does it mean to compose a text that isn’t linear? What effect does design have on the rhetorical situation of your text? Is your website accessible? These are all questions you should ask when you start your project.

Tutorials

Resources

  • Google Sites
    The platform used for your ePortfolio is great for making other kinds of websites
  • Wix
    A simple platform for creating a website. No coding necessary.
  • WordPress
    Blogging and CMS platform
  • Blogger
    Blog platform from Google; use your Ole Miss Gmail account to login.
  • Tumblr
    Image blogging platform
  • Canva
    Design portfolio and image blogging platform
  • Notepad++
    Free text-editor for working with code.
  • Free CSS Templates
    Free CSS/page layout themes for your custom website (for hand-coded websites)
  • HTML5 Boilerplate
    Everything you will need to start building your website from scratch
  • Twitter Bootstrap
    Boilerplate for building your site from scratch.
Campus Resources

  • IT Helpdesk
    The Help Desk can assist if you’re having computer problems or issues with Ole Miss accounts
  • Computer Labs
    There are a number of Mac and PC labs across campus available to you.
  • J.D. Williams Library
    The Library is a great resource for all kinds of composition projects
  • Studio ONE
    The Library’s Studio ONE is a self-contained video production space
  • The Idea Lab
    This space is designed for collaborative meetings, hand-on learning, and creative problem solving. 
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