Multimodal Composition Written Reflection
I signed up for Multimodal Composition because it was the only course available that fulfilled the intermediate writing credits that remained in what was required of my degree. I didn’t have a definitive idea of what the course would entail, I just knew that it was with Dr. Gresham so that it would likely have an emphasis on discourse and the way these assignments and concepts we discuss in class will translate and be useful in our work outside of the classroom, post-college.
If I were to guess before any lectures happened, I would assume that this class would be about composition through different modes of communication, but I would have focused on the idea of composition. I would have personally thought it would circulate more so around the written word. Once class started and assignments unraveled, I learned that I wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t quite right, either. Yes, there would be writing, a lot of it. But there would be a great emphasis on other modes of composition, too.
We defined multimodality in one of the first classes of the semester. It’s best defined as the understanding that communication breaches just language. As in, the first word of the course’s title nearly invalidated my initial thought. By the first word of the course, once I understood it, I was forced to adapt, to step from my comfort zone, and to learn something new. “Multimodal Composition” as a definition becomes more than two individual words defined in consection. Multimodal Composition, together, becomes not just communication beyond language as composition and the nature of those ingredients, but it becomes more purposeful. Multimodal Composition acknowledges that a greater intention is present and fulfilled by this multimodality.
This was news to me. I thought I could just write for everything and that it’d be sufficient, but this course required more than that and it required it in different ways I had to learn how to fulfill. For me, this was more challenging. I am incredibly bad at technology. And in a way, this course required more technology than it at times required writing. It’s not that I was incapable, but I was incredibly not used to it. I’ve relied on my ability to write and every other one of my course’s conventional nature being centered around writing.
However, the presence of technology furthered the course’s intention and underlying premise. Many forms of composition require not only electronic technology, but the advanced modality of material beyond typed words. It was important for me to understand this and then implement this in order to be able to participate in the course, also because the way Dr. Gresham structures her courses is sort of similar to the concept of this course specifically--using many modes or platforms to come together and document material and produce a grade. It may have taken until the end of the course, but I feel as though I was able to really understand the concept of this course and the way it was taught. Even so, the way I was forced to learn and adapt is something I’m additionally capable of taking outside of the classroom as well. All of the skills I learned in this course, both textbook and in characteristic, are things that were important for me to learn as a person, and they’re qualities I’ve already been able to implement outside of this class.