Keywords in Threshold Concepts: Time-Binding and Methodologizing
Disciplinary Lexicon Derek Mueller, Eastern Michigan University,
[email protected]
ver the last two years, rhetoric/composition/writing studies
scholars have granted more serious attention to threshold con-cepts
(Meyer and Land, 2005) as a theoretical frame both for organiz-ing
the eld and for documenting knowledge transfer related to writ-ing
instruction. Threshold concepts have grown precipitously in
popu-larity and proven useful as a cur-ricular and programmatic
heuristic, and yet much of this early atten-tion to them has been
philosophi-cal, conceptual, and speculative. As such, this poster
presentation enters the conversation about threshold concepts with
an under-standing that they remain due for further examination and
elabora-tion, especially in terms of the methodologies used to
identify and trace them.
Keyword
TC
Keyword
Keyword
KeywordKeywordKeyword
Keywor
d
Keyw
ord
Keyw
ord
Keyw
ord
Phan
tom
index
ical
Phantom ind
exical
Phantom indexicalPhantom indexical
computer
TC
craft
designimagegenre
materiality
multim
odal
netw
ork
tech
nolo
gyw
ritin
g
Phan
tom
index
ical
Phantom ind
exical
Phantom indexicalPhantom indexical
All writing is multimodal.
computer
TC
craft
designimagegenre
materiality
multim
odal
netw
ork
tech
nolo
gyw
ritin
g
theo
ry
media
methodrhetoric
All writing is multimodal.
The above illustrations operate as a modelling system more than
a representational system following a distinction ex-pressed by
Johanna Drucker: They [modelling systems] are concerned with
generating new knowledge through the use of visual means, not
assuming that knowledge exists a priori (40).
{{
{
{
{The modelling system outlined here will be focal in the Fall
2015 pilot of WRTG500: Introduction to Graduate Studies in Written
Communication at Eastern Michigan University. WRTG500 is an
MA-level course focused on threshold concepts, keywords, and the
maturation of the discipline.
This basic model indicates envelopment: TCs coalesce
indexically, amassing a lexi-con and solidifying in a wraparound of
materially circulating disciplinary dis-course. Tracing the rising
and falling of TC-associated keywords provides a meth-odological
basis for know-ing the full life cycle of a TC, through nascence,
matura-tion, and expiration.
To illustrate, consider the TC shown here: All writing is
multimodal. These ten key-words (left; six from Heilker and
Vandenbergs Keywords in Writing Studies (2015) and four additional)
function as threshold-conceptual foot-ings, over the past two
de-cades marshalling the now-articulable TC into promi-nence.
Keywords are not alone, however, in mobilizing threshold
concepts. TCs also gain buoyancy from what I call phantom
indexicals--formidable (if ellusive and tacit) accomplices to a TC
that may not circulate with high frequency in published
scholarship.
Time-binding refers to a con-ceptual framework and nota-tion
practice designed to specify chronos. Introduced by Alfred
Korzybski in 1924, in association with the Gen-eral Semantics
movement, the practice failed to catch on. Yet, as a modelling
opera-tion, it alerts us to the rela-tionship between time, TCs,
and the rising and falling key-words enveloping them.
Ten keywords from the TC-Keyword model are listed here with
sparklines plotting their frequency in College Composition and
Communication from 1989 through 2013. The twenty-ve year corpus
covers 507 articles and consists of 3,943,528 words. The graphs oer
perspective on the rising and falling of keywords over time. What
does this suggest about the life cycle of a threshold concept?
While this approach cannot on its own provide a comprehensive
empirical basis for TCs, it advances inquiry into the temporality
of TCs.
2. TCs are simultaneously catalyzed by phantom indexi-cals,
organizing concepts that do not surface in high fre-quency using
text-mining methods.
3. TCs participate in semantic networks and as such they are
en-veloped in keywords and phantom indexicals. Tracing keywords
attunes us to a TCs accretion and avulsion in time.
Q: How can researchers attend to the nascence,
maturation, and expiration of threshold concepts over
time?
4. Although its application requires qualication and
carefulreframing, time-binding, or time-based superscript
notations, can direct explicit attention to temporal anchors in
accounts of relationships among TCs, keywords, and phantom
indexicals.
1. Keywords operate as setae-like mobilizers for threshold
concepts (TCs).
Proposal and references available at http://goo.gl/Q3XhjM.
computer
Token
craft
design
genre
image
materiality
multimodal
network
technology
writing
Frequency in CCC, 1989-2013 (n=tokens/1000 words) Peak n
(year)
.85 (2004)
.34 (2010)
.83 (1989)
1.28 (1993)
.47 (2001)
.05 (2000)
.47 (2007)
.29 (2011)
.68 (1999)
8.42 (2010)
Keywords featured in Heilker and Vandenbergs Keywords in Writing
Studies (2015).The sparkline for writing uses a max-10 y-scale due
to its high frequency relative to the other keywords.
Consider
design1993 vs. design2013
image1989 vs. image2009
genre1991 vs. genre2011
as a basis for exploring
When are keywords?
When are threshold concepts?
1989
1994
1999
2004
2009
2013
^
^
^
^
^
^
!
^
!
