Kiara Kobayashi

Professor Tricia Serviss

ENGL 16
31 Oct 2016
Response Essay #4
The article Not Just Words Any More: Multimodal Communication across the
Curriculum by Bridwell-Bowles, Powell, and Choplin could be seen as more of an experimental
process with results and recommendations rather than an argument. However, it is clear that the
authors and the faculty members of Louisiana State Universitys Communication across the
Curriculum program take the stance that twenty-first century communication requires a new set
of multimodal skills in order to successfully communicate in the digital age. Written in a time of
rapid technological change, the article states that it can be debated whether we are primarily in a
print-based culture, an aural/oral culture, or a visual culture, but there is no arguing with the fact
of multimodality (Bridwell-Bowles, et al). The article begins by addressing the slow pace of
change and the lacking presence and influence of new media on the structure of American higher
education. With this context, the curricular reform Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) or
Writing in the Disciplines (WIC) are introduced. WAC/WIC are described as multidisciplinary
and multimodal, with the ability to adapt to the changes necessary for effective communication.
Established in 2005, the Communication across the Curriculum (CxC) program builds off of
WAC/WID practices and principles, focusing on four modes of communication: written, spoken,
visual, and technological. Louisiana State Universitys CxC program serves as a case study,
providing results, developments, and future recommendations for the CxC program.

Programs such as LSUs CxC are implied to have great importance due to the current
lack of influence that new media has in education, despite the demands for new communication
skills. According to the article, new media (has) not yet officially altered basic structures in
American higher education due to factors such as inherent conservatism and high costs of new
buildings equipped with new technologies (Bridwell-Bowles, et al). The article also holds the
silo isolation of disciplines and static nature of digital media accountable for the slow
adaptation of higher education to the digital era. Bridwell-Bowles, et al describes silo as
preventing collaboration and exchanges between disciplines, which limits the possibilities of
multimodal communication. Static refers to the lack of participation and accessibility in the
digital media mainly used in education. Although this article was written in 2009 and the CxC
program was founded in 2005, the issues discussed bring up the question, to what extent has new
media affected American higher education today? A quote from Carl Raschke in the article may
provide more insight to answering this question as he says, todays typical college classroom,
excluding perhaps its dcor and architecture, does not look or function much differently from the
way that it did in the 1920s. Can you imagine any other crucial pillar of culture, or sector of
economy, that has not changed much in eighty years? (Bridwell-Bowles, et al). Despite the
seven year difference from 2009 to now, it could be argued that not much has changed in regards
to the potential digital media has to influence the classroom.
On one hand, the static nature of digital media has obviously improved. For example,
Camino allows for discussion between students and teachers. However, in my experience, the
discussion section of Camino is rarely implemented in class and the main function of Camino
acts as an email system to send announcements to students. In terms of silo, CTW and C&I
classes and core requirements at Santa Clara University seem to attempt to bridge the gaps

between disciplines by placing students from different majors in classes together. Yet, it could be
argued that after freshman year, there is a lack of exchange between disciplines.
These factors, potentially still in play today, are part of the reason why WAC appealed to
many American colleges. The article also cites Americas writing crisis as a reason that drew
schools to the WAC practices and principles. This writing crisis came during a time when the
work world wanted college graduates to be better writers due to the evolving definition of
literacy (Bridwell-Bowles, et al). According to the article, the need for more active learning
through writing was a prominent issue at the time of the rise of the WAC program. In a sense,
this call for more active writing echoes the argument made by Donald Murray in his article
Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product. In his article, Murray makes his opinion clear that
instead of teaching in the traditional way of analyzing only the finished product, the students
unfinished work should be the focus. Emphasis on the finished written work completely
eliminates teaching of the process, which is critical because composition and writing teachers
work with language in action (Murray 12). Both articles address the process behind
composing and writing. In the case of LSUs CxC program, multimodal forms of
communication help aid in the discovery and exploration process of writing and learning.
The article attributes certain aspects of digital media to the success of multimodal
communication. One of these aspects was the interactivity provided by digital media, which
allows students not only to respond to and interpret others texts but also contribute to and alter
these new texts as they are being written (Bridwell-Bowles, et al). This theme of interaction
and collaboration was also emphasized in the section of the article on the future of CxC. The
authors indicated an interest in extending modes of communication into the social media realm,
stating that blogs, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, etc have already created a convergence

culture that now makes academic and research-based collaboration possible on our campuses
(Bridwell-Bowles, et al). In the research conducted for my group research project on digital
journalism, one source listed interactivity and convergence as characteristics of digital
journalism. I found this connection to be of importance as my project draws attention to the
connection between the democratization of journalism and the democratization of writing tools.
In much of the same way that greater accessibility and interactivity has allowed for a new form
of journalism to emerge, Bridwell-Bowles, et al seems to argue that the same factors will allow
for new forms of communication and literacy to influence higher education.

Works Cited
Bridwell-Bowles, Lillian et al. Not Just Words Anymore: Multimodal Communication Across
the Curriculum. ATD Across the Disciplines, vol. 6, 19 Jan. 2009.
Murray, Donald M. Teach Writing as a Process Not Product. The Leaflet, Nov. 1972, pp. 1114.