Two Potential Multimodal Project Types: The Infographic and the Prezi

Several things I see as important for choosing a multimodal composing project:
1. It must be something that can be taught largely through rhetorical principles.
2. It should have persuasive text (the written word) that interacts with visuals in some way.

Two forms of multimodal projects that I think would work for #1 and #3 of Brian's proposed assignment are the Infographic and the Prezi.

The Infographic

These come in all shapes and forms, and could be done in any program that can combine visuals with text.

This is related to traditional genres like the persuasive brochure, but intends to be a web document.

Some infographics are just informational; the best ones, however, are highly rhetorical.

An example:



















Go to this page (Piggy Trouble) for a bigger view.

Here's a link to a powerful one on Barack Obama's place in history.

The website Six Revisions has a post titled 40 Useful and Creative Infographics which you may want to check out.

Another site filled with infographics is Visual Economics.

The Prezi

The Prezi is a new type of presentation, with free software available to anyone. With any tool, you can make it more or less rhetorical.

Here's a Prezi that I made to help teach Topics of Invention to my English 150 students:


Just use the arrows for a preconstructed path through "Argument City."