Good Things Come to Those who Wait

Well, I do admit that my patience occasionally ran thin during the three years it took from hatching the idea to downloading the PDF of the finished book. But then pain is the proverbial precondition for gain. If it hadn’t been for my two never-tiring, exacting and consistent co-editors, Janina and Assimakis, I would have thrown in the towel many a times.

Our editorial hope is that the book will provide some pieces to the puzzle of multimodal argumentation. Considering various social/professional domains and addressing different multimodal genres, the book’s chapters surely have some potential to open up the field. Here is what the blurb says:

„Modern media increasingly construct persuasive arguments by strategically combining language with visual images, sounds, gestures and other semiotic modes. The book explores such multimodal arguments by re-developing the theories and methods of argument reconstruction and evaluation. It also presents case and corpus studies of multimodal arguments in diverse communicative practices and genres, showcasing the functions of semiotic modes in argumentation.“

I owe thanks great and small to many helping hands. First of all, Assimakis and Janina made sure the editing process was plain sailing in an ocean of what often seemed petty little steps. Then, the colleagues at de Gruyter helped us navigate the intricate twist and turns of the production channel. Open access publication, finally, became a feasible option thanks to the contractual flexibility of the people at de Gruyter and owing to financial support provided in equal amounts by the publication funds of the universities at Groningen (NL), Salzburg (AT) and Örebro (SE).

Ultimately, though, what makes a book is the fresh ideas and analytical insights provided by its authors. So, I say a big thank you to the many minds who creatively went to work on various aspects of multimodal argumentation. May the various shapes and colors add up to form an engaging picture of multimodal argumentation. And may the book have a voice that is being heard out there in the community.