Digital Rhetoric: The Movement of Air, the Breath of Meaning

Overview:

In Cynthia Self’s article entitled The Movement of Air, the Breath of Meaning, she argues that writing composition in America is deeply flawed. Selfe goes as far to say that this curriculum limits our “professional understanding of composing as a multimodal rhetorical activity and deprive students of valuable semiotic resources for making meaning”. I like how she states that her argument is not to tear down a specific medium such as standard paper writing, but suggests all types of medium get the same level of attention. In my view, I believed her opening paragraph provided a strong Segway into her argument. Leading with an antidote allows the reader to “live in the moment” and in this specific case, her example is geared towards the demographic she is trying to reach.

Selfe goes into the idea of “sound” within the classroom, stating students are learning methods of silent reading and not much else. Regaring this method of teaching, Selfe writes that the knowledge is all “consumed by the eye, rather than the ear”. This specific idea is what stuck out to me the most. I also thought the examples she gave regarding aurality and audio composing were very effective.