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Seeking Method in the Madness: Demystifying Students' Multimodal Digital Composing Processes

The study of writing has moved through process and product movements. The rapid introduction of technology into classroom spaces has provided new platforms and opportunities for students to integrate multiple modes of communication into a single act of composing. While there is an acknowledgment that digital multimodal composition is a highly complex act and set of processes, much of the literature and investigation into this digital turn in composing has largely been product focused versus process focused. This exploratory qualitative case study examined how students compose using digital tools and were driven by questions about what activities in which they engage and what patterns exist in how those activities come together. Using a combination of data sources including screen capture video, think-aloud protocols, and retrospective surveys, eleven process activity categories emerged from analysis including selection, text entry, manipulation, referencing, environment setting, review, contemplation, waiting, breaks, transition, and completion. Process activity categories then informed the inductive determination of four tendencies that impact how process activity comes together during participant acts of composing. Participants displayed as one-dimensional, irresolute, flexible, and perfectionist. Broad patterns related to process activity progression and traditional concepts of print were present in participant composing activity. Viewed together, vague complexities noted in literature are explicitly illustrated and elaborated and an argument for digital multimodal composing as a design process is made. Recommendations for practitioners and researchers are shared.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1808353
Date05 1900
CreatorsStamm, Brett M.
ContributorsWickstrom, Carol D., Eutsler, Lauren, Krutka, Daniel G., 1981-, Long, Chris
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatviii, 149 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), Text
RightsPublic, Stamm, Brett M., Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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