1. Training Tutors in Multimodal Compositions
Adam Sprague
Washington State University
Training Tutors in Multimodal Compositions

2. A very brief background
Technology has changed the definition of a text
Visual/Digital information now plays a role in composition
Instructors feel uncomfortable assessing digital texts

3. What is the Writing Center’s Role?
“We are not a graphic design center. Multimodal compositions have no place here.”
An anonymous Writing Center Director

4. A Time of Change
“Advances in technology will lead to some courses requiring only multimodal texts from their students.”
Arlene Archer, the Writing Centre Coordinator at the University of Cape Town

5. Where Can Help be Found?
The answer is often – nowhere.

6. Why do students need help with multimodal compositions?
Selecting semiotic resources in a way that makes sense rhetorically is difficult

7. The Writing Center as a Multimodal Hub
Advantages
Tutors skilled in rhetoric
Computers on site
Disadvantages
Overworked tutors
14+ competencies already required

8. Why Tutors Can Succeed Tutors are mastering a high quantity of content
Parallels exist between assessing text-based compositions and multimodal compositions

9. Similarities… When composing either kind of text one must consider:
Audience
Sources
How to select information
How to convey their message logically

10. What Does this Mean for Tutor Training and Assessment?
Multimodal projects can be assessed based on rhetorical principles
Tutors/Administrators already knowledgeable
Allows the use of conventional writing goals
Writing Center administrators do not need a radically new strategy
Both rooted in rhetorical principles

11. Writing Assessment at WSU
Focus
Organization
Support
Grammar/Sentence-Level Concerns

13. WSU Tutor Focus Group 13 WSU Writing Center tutors WSU Writing
Center does NOT
assist with
multimodality
Given this
image to assess

14. WSU Tutor Focus Group
Students were asked series of questions about image
Workshop on rhetorical similarities of text and image
Image itself not discussed
Students were asked same series of questions about image

15. Problems with the Study
Only 13 tutors polled
Only 1 multimodal sample
Long term success not monitored
No assignment sheet to guide assessment
Short workshop due to student schedules
All tutors polled were undergraduate students

16. Results

17. Brief Discussion of Results
Rhetorical similarities allow for same assessment as text-based compositions
A single workshop can eliminate concerns and provide framework for assessment
The Writing Center can use multimodality as a way to validate worth

18. Works Cited
"AFOSP Strategies for Peer-Editing a Paper." AFOSP Strategies for Peer-Editing a Paper. Web. 19 Nov <public.wsu.edu/~deome/readings/afosp.pdf>.
Archer, Arlene. "A Multimodal Approach to Academic 'Literacies': Problematizing the
Visual/Verbal Divide." Language and Education (2006): Print.
Harris, Muriel. "Using Tutorial Principles to Train Tutors: Practicing Our Praxis." The writing center director's resource book. Eds. Murphy, Christina, and Byron L. Stay. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, Print.
Huot, Brian, and Sonya Borton. "Respond and Assessing." Responding and Assessing. Web. 19 Nov <
Kress Gunther (2005). Gains and Losses: New Forms of Texts, Knowledge, and Learning.
Computers and Composition (2003). Literacy in the New Media Age.  New York: Routledge.
Murray, Elizabeth , Hailey Sheets, and Nicole Williams. "The New Work of Assessment - Home." BGSU :: University Home Page :: Bowling Green State University Home Page. 8 Sept Web. 19 Nov <
Odell, Lee, and Susan Katz. "“Yes, a T-Shirt!”: Assessing Visual Composition in the “Writing” Class." CCC 61.1 (2009): Print.
Sorapure, Madeleine. "Between Modes: Assessing Student New Media Compositions." Kairos 10.2 (2005): Print.

19. Thank You