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Figuring out how to document sources in a multimodal composition

Composers can cite sources in different ways, for different modes. Student Marisa Williamson provides a separate works cited page for her video essay “To the Children of America” because that is what the assignment requires. She credits the owners of the music she used, the audio clips she used, and the images and video she used. Her works cited list provides enough information for her audience to find the complete, original files that she edited for her project. If she creates a video essay for another course, she might follow a convention typical of movies and include a credits section at the end of her video.

Another example of how sources are cited differently in different types of compositions is shown on the works cited page of Alyson D’Amato’s Web site. D’Amato was, for much of the content, the expert. That is, she didn’t need to do a lot of research because she knew a great deal about selecting and brewing tea. She was interested in learning more about tea rituals and tea history, so she cited the works she consulted as she worked on her site, and she also created a list of links to Web sites she mentioned on her own site.

Identifying what citation conventions are typical of the delivery mode you plan to use and following those conventions is part of multimodal composing. The chart gives conventions for different genres.

The list of genres in the chart is not exhaustive, but it gives some sense of the ways in which composers of multimodal works can document the use of materials and information they did not create. Depending on the course for which you are composing, you may be asked to consult a particular academic citation style.

Web page showing works cited and links

Documentation conventions for different genres

Activity 23: Understanding documentation in different genres

Activity 24: Keeping a working bibliography for your project