I think I would like to start with a question that continued to poke at me: Does the media in which one is working in define the mode? For instance, if one is writing a script for a podcast or radio show, would then the modes be predetermined? I guess, like Palmeri, I am interested in the possibilities in invention. Far too frequently, I being included, overlook the critical questions and steps needed in which to propel one into the process of writing, or the process of composing. Furthermore, I am highly interested in the possibilities in composing, as Palmeri articulates vis-a-vis Flower and Hayes, when “writers and artists engage in the composing process… they may often find themselves redefining their problems, generating new ideas and imagining new goals” (30).  How this can apply to the classroom? What methods, ways, or examples are available in which to stem these reflections and questioning from students? I am trying to imagine the process of starting this and then scaffolding it.

I am also extremely enraptured by the idea of multimodal thinking and how writers do not think or imagine in words alone. However, I am not sure ways in which to effectively teach students this approach, nor, for that matter, how to even teach myself how to do this. I pride myself on, as well as enjoy, being a creative writer rather than an academic writer and I have never considered my approach, or the ways in which I imagine something into writing. And the final form, typically, is something manifesting itself as prose, so the idea of translation, or describing the deer on ice as an act of translation as the Flower and Hayes example attests to, is, yes, an act of translation, but still is of language, and sequence, and narration. How, then, can we capture these other modalities of imagining and composing? Sound and visuality is suggested but is that all? I don’t know where this idea is heading I just guess I am itching to know more about the possibilities of multi-modal thinking and being able to unlock its potentials. At this moment, to be honest, I am not too clear how to do it for myself, so I can never even dare to try to teach it.

I also found the terminological shift from writing to composing brilliant in rethinking how we view our classes and the work our students will produce. Composing seems to have a more artistic bent, and perhaps can move students away from viewing writing as a tedious, dull process.