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Designerly Readerly

Re-assessing Multimodal and New Media Rubrics for Use in Writing Studies

Utah State University, USA

In this article, I draw on Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen's (2001) Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication and Lev Manovich's (2001) The Language of New Media, which have become prevalent texts in US writing studies fields, to describe the rubrics they use and show how they help readers determine the materialities of multi modal or new media texts. I also argue, however, that writing studies scholars should not rely solely on these rubrics because they function in designerly, not readerly, ways that would help readers understand a text's rhetorical situation. I apply the rubrics to a new media text, ‘While Chopping Red Peppers’ (Ankerson and Sapnar, 2000), to show their limited use and to suggest that while these multimodal and new media theories have a place in writing studies, we need better methods and/or reading heuristics in order to interpret (and teach) such works.

Key Words: analysis • design • designerly • multimodal • new media • purpose • readerly • rhetoric • rubric • writing studies

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