Keywords

multimodal, new media, invention, transfer, video, composition, storyboard, basic writing

Abstract

This article describes an innovative pedagogical technique for multimodal composition courses: the use of storyboarding as an invention tool across multiple composition platforms. Student response data and our textual analysis of their multimodal texts over a two-year period reveal some challenges when new media projects are taught alongside traditional essay writing. Our research also shows that basic writing students were more likely to see similarities between the two assignments when they were asked to use a similar process of invention. Utilizing composition concepts in tandem to compose two similar but different products (essay and video) that ostensibly reside in different spaces and times provides unique opportunities for teachers and students in the basic writing classroom to discuss conventional compositional moves—context, style, evidence, warrants—and to discuss argumentation more broadly. Reemphasizing the role of invention in multi-modal instruction as a critical component in the process of new media instruction may help students’ ability to transfer writing knowledge from one assignment to another.

Original Publication Citation

Balzotti, J. “Storyboarding for Invention: Layering Modes for More Effective Transfer in a Multimodal Composition Classroom.” Journal of Basic Writing 35.1 (2016): 63–84.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2016

Publisher

Journal of Basic Writing

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Information Systems Management

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

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