Table Of ContentExploring Semiotic
Remediation as Discourse
Practice
Edited by
Paul A. Prior and Julie A. Hengst
Exploring Semiotic Remediation as Discourse Practice
Also by Paul A. Prior
WRITING/DISCIPLINARITY: a Sociohistoric Account of Literate Activity
in the Academy (1998)
WHAT WRITING DOES AND HOW IT DOES IT: an Introduction to Analyzing
Texts and Textual Practices (co-edited with Charles Bazerman, 2004)
Exploring Semiotic
Remediation as Discourse
Practice
Edited by
Paul A. Prior
and
Julie A. Hengst
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Selection and editorial matter © Paul A. Prior and Julie A. Hengst 2010
Chapters © their individual authors 2010
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978–0–230–22101–7
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified
as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2010 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-30649-7 ISBN 978-0-230-25062-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230250628
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
Contents
List of Figures vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgment xii
Notes on the Contributors xiii
1 Introduction: Exploring Semiotic Remediation 1
Paul A. Prior and Julie A. Hengst
2 The ‘Poetry Slam,’ Mathemagicians, and Middle
School Math: Tracing Trajectories of Actors and Artifacts 24
Kevin Roozen
3 ‘On the Many Forms it Took throughout’: Engineering
a Multipart, Multiple Site Rhetorical Event 52
Jody Shipka
4 Negotiating Moral Stance in Classroom Discussion about
Literature: Entextualization and Contextualization
Processes in a Narrative Spell 77
Mary M. Juzwik
5 Semiotic Remediation, Conversational Narratives
and Aphasia 107
Julie A. Hengst
6 Resemiotization of a Policy Initiative: Promoting Open
Disclosure as ‘Open Communication about Clinical
Adverse Events’ 139
Rick Iedema
7 Mediating Modes of Representation in Understanding
Science: the Case of Genetic Inheritance 156
Barry Saferstein and Srikant Sarangi
v
vi Contents
8 Citizens Doing Science in Public Spaces: Rhetorical
Invention, Semiotic Remediation, and Simple Little Texts 184
Jeffrey T. Grabill and Stuart Blythe
9 Remaking IO: Semiotic Remediation in the Design Process 206
Paul A. Prior
Semiotic Remediation: Afterword 235
Judith T. Irvine
References 243
Author Index 261
Subject Index 266
List of Figures
2.1 Images of Brian’s Math 302 notebook showing his use
of pi (at left) and the unit circle (at right) 32
2.2 Transcript (at left) and cards (at right) employed to
explain pi as a means of scoring poems performed during
the Poetry Slam sketch 35
2.3 Signs created by Brian’s middle school students and
displayed in his classroom 39
2.4 Excerpts of Brian’s notes regarding magical abilities based
on two categories of mathematics: algebra (above) and
analysis (below) 42
2.5 Copy of the character sheet describing John Russel, one
of the mathemagican characters that Brian created for the
Jumpers role-playing game 45
3.1 Bill’s storyline from his Statement of Goals and Choices
on the left juxtaposed with text and images from
different students’ blue books on the right 65
3.2 A segment of ‘Blue Book Perspective Translation’ 66
3.3 A segment of ‘My Personal Translation’ 67
3.4 Stage area of ‘coffeehouse’ 70
3.5 Seating area of ‘coffeehouse’ 71
4.1 Map of classroom 85
4.2 Transcript of Ms. Gomez’s first narrative in spell 89
4.3 Transcript of Alice’s narrative, the second in the spell 97
4.4 Transcript of Ms. Gomez’s second narrative, the third in
the spell 99
5.1 Ethel’s ‘He just gets it’ narratives 120
5.2 Mary’s ‘You’re gonna DI::E of this!’ narrative 125
5.3 Louise’s driving narrative 131
6.1 Front cover of the Open Disclosure Standard in 2003 149
6.2 Cover of a brochure on open disclosure 150
7.1 Genetic inheritance exhibit 161
7.2 Modes of representation 162
7.3 Interactive mechanical wheel 162
7.4 Software interface 166
vii
viii List of Figures
7.5 Students concurrently using talk, gesture, graphics,
and text 169
7.6 Images, gestures, and talk 175
7.7 Reflexivity of gesture, talk, and meaning 177
8.1 A conceptual diagram of semiotic remediation 190
8.2 A diagram of the relationships between, and primary
concerns of, seven members (A, B, C, F, G, K, X)
of the CEC 193
8.3 Page one of the bullseye flier (Note that some text has
been masked to limit the identifiability of participants,
individuals, and organizations) 199
8.4 Page two of the bullseye flier (Note that some text has
been masked to limit the identifiability of participants,
individuals, and organizations) 200
9.1 Screen capture of IO 212
9.2 Whiteboard and screen architectures (February 27) 216
9.3 Continuing whiteboard interactions
(February 27 continued) 217
9.4 Annotating a drawing (February 27 continued) 218
9.5 Revisiting the template and database (September 14) 220
9.6 Aligning around the paper template
(September 14 continued) 221
9.7 Examining the interface (November 2) 224
9.8 Realigning the template (November 2 continued) 225
Preface
The cover of this book represents a quilt that a friend, Kent Williams,
made. When the quilt was accepted for exhibition in a touring show of
art quilts, Quilt National 2007, Kent wrote the following to describe it:
Every August, I spend a week at a cottage on Saginaw Bay near
Caseville, Michigan. And, although this quilt began as a purely
abstract exercise – using horizontal bands to form a composition –
it has come to represent the feeling I often get as the last rays of light
splinter into colors so rich and various that you almost lose your
breath. Another day is gone – another summer too.1
Kent’s quilt–bay–cottage experience is nicely captured in the name he
gave the work: Caseville, August 3, 8:53 pm. We happened on the idea
of using an image of this quilt for the cover of the book late in the
process. The way varied fabrics are cut up, arranged into a pattern, and
stitched together; the way that pattern is seen in different contexts by
audiences; and the way the quilt gets represented (as it was in a cat-
alog of quilts from the show, as it is in the photographic image that
was the basis for the cover, as it is on the multiple material covers
of this book, as it is here in our words) illustrate the pervasiveness of
the piecing together we refer to as semiotic remediation. Kent’s com-
ments about the quilt also nicely capture another key point of semiotic
remediation – as the historical production of the quilt was not simply
about sewing together material. Along the way, this production process
became imbued with history, a history of what was happening (particu-
larly in the local environment of the cottage on Saginaw Bay, a cottage
we have also visited), but also a history rich with affective resonances, a
history where what was stitched together was also Kent’s identities and
social relations with a group of people who supported his quilting. The
original intent was not to represent a sunset on the bay, and what the
quilt came to mean emerged out of this wider history of its production.
In that circumference, trajectories of learning were also implicated. Kent
has worked mainly as a writer and movie critic. He began making quilts
as another means of artistic expression and as another dimension of a
long friendship with our neighbor, Nancy Fisher, a fabric artist. Kent’s
ix
