Negotiating the Spaces of Design in Multimodal Composition

In a changing information economy of images and multimodal composition practices, writing programs face new challenges and opportunities for creating spaces that encourage students to explore processes in high-tech, low-stakes environments. This article suggests that composing in multimodal spaces is always a negotiation. Therefore, a one-size-fits-all approach for designing such spaces may not be as useful as portable, flexible approaches. In this article, I apply Joddy Murray's (2009) values of non-discursive rhetoric as a generative heuristic for space design that highlights important perspectives for programs that teach multimodal composition.