Getting a (Thres)Hold On My Writing Process

This blog is about threshold writing concepts but more specifically the 4 threshold concepts that have impacted my writing process the most. Scroll down to my first post to learn more about what threshold concepts are!

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Why is this important? So what?

Whether you share my viewpoint that these threshold concepts are really important in your writing process or not, it is important to understand your own writing process and your own relationship with writing. Being able to identify what threshold concepts play a part in your life can help you gain a better understanding of yourself and your own mind, the way you learn, and gain a different perspective of the world around you. Understanding your own writing process and how you both read and write texts will give you so much insight into both yourself and the world. 

My concepts, for instance, have helped me establish a stronger sense of who I am, have helped me accept that failure can be a positive thing, and have helped me understand that the texts you interact with will shape your view of the world and will impact your own writing. That being said, what threshold concepts do you think play a part in your writing process? In what ways do you define your relationship with writing? What does your writing process look like?

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Why these concepts?

Each 4 of the concepts I have chosen play different, but equally significant, parts in my relationship with writing. Everyone has their own individualized writing process but I felt that these 4 concepts in particular played  important roles in mine.

I chose Concept 2.1 because I feel that it expresses how writing is a foundation for knowledge and plays a huge part in how we not only see the world around us but how we see ourselves. So, in other words, writing serves as the foundation for everything we know about the world.

I chose Concept 2.6 because the texts we interact with influence the texts we then produce. Everything we will ever write is in response or in reference to another text (written or non-written). So, the texts we interact with will have an influence on the texts that we then produce both in content and how we chose to write.

I chose Concept 3.1 because I feel like you can discover so much about who you are and gain a stronger sense of self through writing which then impacts what and how you write. I personally have learned so much about myself through writing and have uncovered parts of my identity through my own writing process which is why I feel like this concept is so important.

I chose Concept 4.2 because failure is such an imperative part of the writing process that is so frequently overlooked and ignored. In my own life, learning from my failures and developing the mindset that failure is a part of the writing process have both been huge parts of how I have grown into the writer I am today. 

All 4 of these concepts have greatly impacted me in both my own writing process and my relationship with writing. While not everyone may feel the same connection to these 4 threshold concepts that I do, it is important to recognize what threshold concepts play a part in your own writing process. 

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My 4 Threshold Concepts

Everyone’s writing process is different and everyone will have a different experience when it comes to their relationship with writing. While reading this book, there were 4 threshold concepts that stuck out to me in terms of my own writing process:

Concept 2.1: Writing Represents the World, Events, Ideas, and Feelings. This concept discusses how writing about what we know, think, and feel has the ability to shape what is considered common knowledge and that most of what we know about the world around us comes from how things are represented in the texts we interact with. In terms of the criteria for a threshold concept, this particular concept is especially transformative and troublesome because it has the ability to change the way people see the world and may typically be resisted because of the way it disagrees with the opinions a person previously held.

Concept 2.6: Texts Get Their Meaning From Other Texts. This section focuses on how texts rely on other texts (both written and non-written) to create meaning and how texts often coincide with one another and cannot stand alone. The criteria that this concept heavily relies on is that it is bounded and integrative because while this concept discusses how texts must rely on other texts to create meaning, not all texts are interlinked, and this concept can be utilized to understand other concepts. 

Concept 3.1: Writing is Linked to Identity. This concept explains how writing can act as a way for us to uncover parts of ourselves and our multiple identities. This concept also discusses how we use writing to display our identities and identify what communities we are apart of and how we align with the beliefs and values of these said communities. This concept, in terms of criteria, is irreversible because permanent change can be enacted if people can discover certain things about themselves and their own identities through writing. 

Concept 4.2: Failure Can Be an Important Part of Writing Development. This concept talks about the fact that failure is an imperative part of the writing process and that successful writers are those who can learn from their mistakes. Regarding the threshold concepts criteria, this concept in particular is especially troublesome because it is, at first, very difficult to accept failure as it is typically seen as a negative thing but once you realize that by accepting and learning from failure, you can succeed in writing, this can completely transform your life and your writing process.

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What are threshold concepts?

The term threshold concepts come from the book “Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies,” edited by Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle. This book establishes a core foundation of what is known about the field of writing and how one participates in writing through threshold concepts, written by a variety of experts in the field. There are 5 items that make up the criteria for a threshold concept. Threshold concepts are:

Transformative (can change the way someone thinks and sees things)

Irreversible (can produce permanent change)

Integrative (can utilize this concept to understand other concepts)

Bounded (this concept is not connected to everything)

Troublesome.(this concept is typically resisted because of its transformative ability and it is at odds with what is previously believed or thought)

While this book identifies what we do know about the act of writing, it is important to note that there is always more to learn.