Multimodal Composition in Technical and Professional Communication: Transnational Writers in the COVID and Post-COVID-19 Period

This dissertation explores multimodal composing strategies enacted by technical and professional communication (TPC) writers during and post-COVID-19 period. The researcher presents an investigation into a course unit project and pedagogical approach framed around the idea of multimodal composition in an upper-division professional writing class with transnational students majoring in management, economics, health science, aviation technology, mathematics, computer engineering, accounting, consumer science, biology, and agronomy in a large research university in the Midwest. This study advocates a multimodal approach to teaching writing in its expanded sense with multimodal career unit project assignments in multiple media and modes, including resumes/CVs, personal statements, LinkedIn profiles, video profiles/resumes, job position analyses, and rhetorical and mode analyses. This project presents implications for instructors of technical and professional communicators who are aiming to develop and update their curricula and teaching pedagogies situated in multiple modes across global audiences, for multiple purposes, and in a variety of media.