Discourse-Based Methods Across Texts and Semiotic Modes

Abstract

As the scope of rhetorical inquiry broadens to cover intersemiotic and intertextual phenomena, scholars are increasingly in need of new, defensible analytic procedures. Several scholars have suggested that methods of discourse analysis could enhance rhetorical criticism. Here, I introduce a discourse-based method that is empirical, delicate, and adaptive to the complexities of intertextual and multimodal rhetoric. Specifically, I argue that rhetorical scholars can productively integrate systemic-functional linguistics, multimodal text analysis, and micro-intertextual comparison. I illustrate how this micro-rhetorical toolkit can be employed to investigate the recontextualization of written political discourse in video journalism.

Multimodal Resemiotization and Authorial Agency in an L2 Writing Classroom

“…The analysis entailed both single mode-based meanings and intermodal meanings across modes for the synesthetic whole. Our analysis copresented the modes in the timeline of the video within adjacent pairs of dialogue between the characters, considering temporality, segmentability, and analyzability (Hull & Nelson, 2005; Oddo, 2013). The temporal and modal relations in the medium are presented for multimodal analysis in Table 1.…”

“…Within multimodal composition, the principle of recontextualization has been instantiated into several lines of study that involve changes of mode, medium, channel, discourse, and genre (Berkenkotter, 2001; Bezemer & Kress, 2008; Oddo, 2013; Tusting, 2015). Some studies have illustrated how texts are recontextualized across contexts by focusing on produced texts, while others have shown transformations of texts by focusing on practices of producing texts.…”

“…This textual change brought about different social relations between the author and audience, by invoking “lower tier” readers of science through “simplicity of display” (p. 190). Similarly, focusing on medium change, Oddo (2013) introduces a recontextualization example of a letter that involves medial, modal, and genre changes with transformed discourses and styles. Remediating from a written paper to a video (i.e., a letter written by former CIA director George Tenet was recontextualized into a CBS Evening News broadcast), he explains the recontextualization process of written political discourse in video journalism and social repositioning of audiences.…”

Examining Intertextual Connections in Written Arguments: A Study of Student Writing as Social Participation and Response

“…Grounding ourselves in previous intertextual scholarship, we began individual analysis of the traces using Oddo’s (2013) four categories of transformation: deletion, addition, relexicalization, and reordering (p. 260). We then met to discuss our initial findings: both addition and reordering were dominant in our data.…”

“…When writers borrow others’ words for their own purposes, they transform those words in various ways such as adding, deleting, or reordering (Lawrence, 2008; Oddo, 2013). In doing so, writers are able to use previous texts to accomplish new goals.…”