Jarod Mau

Dr. Roe
Introduction to College Writing
10 May 2015
Are All Texts Multimodal?
The statement all meaning-making is multimodal is, in my opinion, a very true
statement. After reading the first few pages of the booklet Writer/Designer: A Guide to Making
Multimodal Projects, it is fairly easy to see that many projects you see during the day flyers,
PowerPoints, TV shows, etc. contain various modes. With this being stated, I strongly back the
statement that all meaning-making is multimodal.
The word multimodal is a mash-up of multiple and mode. (Arola, Sheppard and Ball)
These multiple modes consist of linguistic, aural, visual, spatial, and gestural aspects. If a
project or small piece of artwork contains any two or more of these aspects, it is considered
multimodal. The linguistic mode of a multimodal project refers to the language that is being
used, whether written or spoken. (Arola, Sheppard and Ball) Simply stated, you are
demonstrating the linguistic mode if you have any words typed or printed or if you say anything.
In order to utilize the visual mode, you need to have some sort of image and/or graphic involved
in your project. Examples of various works that involve the visual mode are PowerPoints, flyers,
brochures, and billboards. The aural mode refers to the sound effects that are used throughout the
presentation. An example of what we did in class that involved the aural mode would be our
digital narrative; we were required to have music playing music in the background while we
were telling our story. Aside from the aural mode, our digital narrative also included the
linguistic mode as well as the visual mode. The spatial mode focuses mainly on the physical

arrangement of a piece of work. (Arola, Sheppard and Ball) The importance of the spatial mode
is to focus on the way something is arranged in order to allow easy access and navigation for
people that are viewing the project. Gestural mode refers exactly to what you think it is, the
gestures/movements you make during a speech or presentation. The gestural mode also refers to
a persons body language while they are presenting. After learning about what all of these
different modes focus on, it is easy to see that basically all pieces of work are multimodal.
Brochures, almanacs, billboards, PowerPoints, words documents, and many more pieces
of work contain various modes that make them multimodal. There are numerous projects that
contain two or more of the terms listed in the previous paragraphs. All meaning-making is
multimodal is a very true statement in my opinion.