This article points composition scholars toward two bodies of theory that are gaining attention in our discipline, performance studies and multimodal discourse theory. Each raises important questions about the ways we teach writing, the kinds of composition processes we value, and the means by which students construct authority in the university. The author argues that by combining performance studies and multimodal discourse theories with invention strategies early in the research writing process, instructors can enhance the effectiveness of students struggling to adopt an authoritative voice in research papers. Instructors can merge these approaches productively by assigning student-generated podcasts. (Contains 4 notes.)