The secret behind the compelling, idea-driven multimedia essays that my students often compose – individually or collaboratively – is their knowledge of and experience writing the essay…Whereas the abrupt shift from writing
conventional academic discourse to creating ambitious multimodal discourse can threaten to disorient students and
overburden them with the need to learn, simultaneously, not only new technologies and a new rhetorical situation but also
a new genres (or combination of genres), the multimedia essay flows relatively smoothly from its print ancestor. (39)
He lists the following as shared elements of the print essay and multimedia essay: Both allow an exploratory understanding of writing; have a narrative structure; “highlight the importance of the visual” (43); enable students to use their own voices; and “offer abundant creative opportunities coupled with corresponding rhetorical challenges” (50). Ellis seems to understand the essay in its original sense of inquiry and exploration.
Ellis, however, comes on a bit strong, suggesting that the essay is the only way to get at what he values in the essay: “By abandoning the essay, we deprive students of valuable opportunities to explore and share their original ideas in creative forms, including multimedia forms” (48). After making his argument, Ellis walks the reader through some of his course, listing sample print essays for student analysis, providing example writing prompts, explaining why he requires students to use all original material, emphasizing that teacher often underestimate how much time these kinds of projects take, and then explicating two student examples.
Ellis explains that “all literacy is multimedia literacy: You can never make meaning with language alone; there must always be a visual or vocal realization of linguistic signs that also carry nonlinguistic meaning (e.g., tone of choice or style or orthography)” (Jay L. Lemke qtd. on 39).
Key Term
- Multimedia essay: “a short multimedia composition that develops an original idea in an interesting way and the features such essayistic qualities as an underlying subjectivity, a reflective and exploratory spirit, and a flexible, often narrative structure” (38).