Incorporating direct quotations in videos for academic purposes: An exploratory study

Abstract

This study explores how direct quotations are incorporated into video essays through multimodal resources, with the hope of contributing to the growing body of research that examines the rhetorical and discourse features unique to the emerging multimodal genres in academic communication. Fifty-two cases of multimodal quotations were collected from 15 video essays published in a peer-reviewed online journal. The inductive analysis yielded three types of incorporating direct quotations–(semi)isolated, transplanted, and integrated quotations–that vary in terms of how closely the quoted materials are connected to the co-texts through explicit use of linguistic cues. The findings also highlight the varied ways in which quoted authors are made visible,shedding light on the rhetorical intentions behind the use and configuration of multimodal quotations. This study generates valuable insights into how new conventions are being formed and practiced in a digital genre and provides pedagogical implications for approaching explicit intertextuality in teaching multimodal writing tasks.