Final answer:
Richard used the Narrative mode to share the company's history as an inspiring story, emphasizing its success over larger corporations. Processing the story with understanding of multimodal composition, ensuring it is well-crafted, organized, and purposeful, can make the narrative more impactful.
Step-by-step explanation:
The compositional mode used by Richard for framing the company's history as an inspiring story on their website is D) Narrative. This mode focuses on telling a story, which in this context is about the company's humble beginnings and its evolution into a successful business that overcame the challenge of large corporations. Narratives are an effective way to connect with the audience on an emotional level by presenting events in a structured and connected sequence. Additionally, the narrative suits Richard's aim to inspire potential customers and partners by showcasing the company's trajectory.
Richard's choice of a narrative mode aligns with the multimodal composition strategies that take into consideration the rhetorical situation. Including multimodal elements, such as aligning the text with relevant images of bicycles or the company's early days, could augment the impact of the story. The narrative itself, while effective, could be even more engaging if other modes like visual elements are incorporated, enhancing the rhetorical appeal and the audience's connection with the message.
To be truly impactful, Richard's narrative should also be well-crafted, organized, and purposeful, reflecting an understanding of literary devices, logical structure, and addressing the needs of the audience.