What patterns of multimodal rhetoric characterizes the most successful texts meant for learning--inside or outside school? This article argues that the balance between cohesion and tension in the interplay between modes is an issue at the core of this challenging question. Texts meant for learning need both cohesion and tension in order to be both…

The expression of the self through multimodal texts is a central theme in education. While it has been suggested that new technologies act as important mediators in the relationship between texts and subjectivity, the mechanisms underlying such mediation has been a neglected topic of research. This paper considers the theoretical assumptions upon…