The Grind of Multimodal Work in Professional Writing Pedagogies

Abstract

Abstract Writing in the face of ongoing environmental, economic, and infrastructural flux is hard work. Doing that work while contending with constraints of various modes and media is even more difficult—especially for student writers. Drawing on results from an assessment project that involved iteratively coding students’ writing produced for a nonprofit community partner, we propose a feedback model for responding to students’ multimodal work that is sensitive to contextual flux. Rather than a static rubric, content in this feedback model draws attention to changing material-discursive conditions. We hypothesize that centralizing material-discursive conditions in multimodal curricula creates opportunities for conversations about more than just design fundamentals. Complex contextual factors that require nuanced rhetorical attunements a la Thomas Rickert) and responsiveness to local contingencies present opportunities for discussing and designing in the midst of uneven distribution of resources, variations in skill, and organizational values. A feedback model that is responsive to changing material-discursive conditions may be helpful for those who practice community-engaged pedagogies.