The paper investigates the sign-making practices resulting from the affordance of copy-and-paste. When representation is produced through re-use, cohesion is no longer a necessary device for coherence, while texts are characterized by modular combination of topics, voices, modes and genres, together with increased intertextuality, implicitness and multi-layered meanings. Modularly-composed texts are increasingly frequent in all contexts, modes and genres while linearly-structured ones seem essentially confined to a few educational and academic written genres. By discussing examples of students’ productions of academic writing which reveal the influence of assemblage-based semiotic practices, the conclusions offer insights on the implications for learning/teaching of written genres.
Mashing genres up, breaking them down: Literacy in the age of copy-and-paste
ADAMI, Elisabetta
2011-01-01
Abstract
The paper investigates the sign-making practices resulting from the affordance of copy-and-paste. When representation is produced through re-use, cohesion is no longer a necessary device for coherence, while texts are characterized by modular combination of topics, voices, modes and genres, together with increased intertextuality, implicitness and multi-layered meanings. Modularly-composed texts are increasingly frequent in all contexts, modes and genres while linearly-structured ones seem essentially confined to a few educational and academic written genres. By discussing examples of students’ productions of academic writing which reveal the influence of assemblage-based semiotic practices, the conclusions offer insights on the implications for learning/teaching of written genres.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
