The term composition (from Latin ''com-'' "with" and ''ponere'' "to place") as it refers to writing, can describe writers' decisions about, processes for designing, and sometimes the final product of, a document. In original use, it tended to describe practices concerning the development of

oratorical Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking (formally and informally) to an audience, including pre-recorded speech deliver ...

performances, and eventually essays, narratives, or genres of imaginative literature, but since the mid-20th century emergence of the field of

composition studies Composition studies (also referred to as composition and rhetoric, rhetoric and composition, writing studies, or simply composition) is the professional field of writing, research, and instruction, focusing especially on writing at the college leve ...

, its use has broadened to apply to any composed work: print or digital, alphanumeric or multimodal.

Elements of composition

Theoretical and applied studies in

narratology Narratology is the study of narrative and narrative structure and the ways that these affect human perception. It is an anglicisation of French ''narratologie'', coined by Tzvetan Todorov (''Grammaire du Décaméron'', 1969). Its theoretical li ...

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate par ...

, and composition studies have identified elements like the following as relevant to processes of composing language. This list is neither exclusive nor sequential: * Outline, the organisations of thoughts and/or ideas which is used to determine organisational technique *Plot, the course or arrangement of events * Theme, the unifying subject or idea *

Dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American and British English spelling differences, American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literature, literary and theatrical form that depicts suc ...

, a reciprocal conversation between two or more persons *

Characterisation Characterization or characterisation is the representation of persons (or other beings or creatures) in narrative and dramatic works. The term character development is sometimes used as a synonym. This representation may include direct method ...

, the process of creating characters *

Setting Setting may refer to: * A location (geography) where something is set * Set construction in theatrical scenery * Setting (narrative), the place and time in a work of narrative, especially fiction * Setting up to fail a manipulative technique to e ...

, the time and location in which the composition takes place *Description,

definition A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols). Definitions can be classified into two large categories: intensional definitions (which try to give the sense of a term), and extensional definiti ...

s of things in the composition *

Style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

, specifically, the linguistic style of the composition *Setting tone or mood, conveying one or more emotions or feelings through words *

Voice The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...

, the individual writing style of the author * Tone, which encompasses the attitudes toward the subject and toward the audience *Justification, or reasoning in support of the topic *Arrangement, strategic use of written, oral, visual and/or digital to inform,

persuade Persuasion or persuasion arts is an umbrella term for influence. Persuasion can influence a person's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviours. Persuasion is studied in many disciplines. Rhetoric studies modes of persua ...

, or

motivate Motivation is the reason for which humans and other animals initiate, continue, or terminate a behavior at a given time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-dire ...

an audience in a given situation.

Oral discourse

Traditionally, oratory, or classical rhetoric, is composed of five stages, or canons: *

Inventio ''Inventio'', one of the five canons of rhetoric, is the method used for the ''discovery of arguments'' in Western rhetoric and comes from the Latin word, meaning "invention" or "discovery". ''Inventio'' is the central, indispensable canon of rh ...

n, "the search of persuasive ways to present information and formulate arguments" *

Arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orche ...

, "the organization of the parts of speech to ensure that all means of persuasion are present and properly disposed" *

, "the use of correct, appropriate, and striking language throughout the speech" *

Memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remember ...

, "the use of mnemonics and practice of speech" * Delivery, "the use of effective gestures and vocal modulation to present the speech" Typically, in any speech classroom, these stages are still prevalent in the composing process. Other such qualities to be included, especially when considering ones'

audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), o ...

and methods of persuasion, would be the rhetorical appeals: *

Logos ''Logos'' (, ; grc, λόγος, lógos, lit=word, discourse, or reason) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric and refers to the appeal to reason that relies on logic or reason, inductive and deductive reasoning. Aris ...

, appeals to logic and reason, evidence and support *

Ethos Ethos ( or ) is a Greek word meaning "character" that is used to describe the guiding beliefs or ideals that characterize a community, nation, or ideology; and the balance between caution, and passion. The Greeks also used this word to refer to ...

, appeals to ethics, the speaker's credibility, trustworthiness, and morals *

Pathos Pathos (, ; plural: ''pathea'' or ''pathê''; , for " suffering" or "experience") appeals to the emotions and ideals of the audience and elicits feelings that already reside in them. Pathos is a term used most often in rhetoric (in which it is ...

, appeals to emotion, connecting with audience through shared feelings

Written discourse

As oral discourse shifted to more written discourse, the stage of memory and delivery began to fade, yet the first three stages hold its rank in the writing process of most composition classrooms. The rhetorical appeals also prove important in written texts, as the strategies of using these appeals become more complex as writers understand their audience's needs when not in physical view.

Visual

While, strictly speaking, even a printed page of text is multimodal, the teaching of composition has begun to attend to the language of visuals. Some have suggested privileging only the linguistic mode limits the opportunity to engage in multiple symbols that create meaning and speak rhetorically. In thinking about how visuals are used to communicate, and how they are composed or analyzed in a rhetorical work, Foss argues that one considers: *Nature, the present elements/physical features and suggested elements/concepts and ideas *Function, the action it communicates *Evaluation, assessed rhetorically Foss, who acknowledges visual rhetoric, demonstrates that composition studies has to consider other definitions and incorporations of language.

Digital

This composition refers to work produced in digital spaces. The writer or speaker must not only consider all the composing processes of the above-mentioned discourse (like purpose, arrangement, etc.), but the relationship medium plays in the composing and decision process of that work. In digital discourse, the fifth canon of delivery takes on new meaning, and digital spaces change how traditional views of authority, circulation, and context are understood, like composing in a Wikipedia. Thus digital rhetoric, or eRhetoric offers new ways of composing.

References