The Worked Example: Invitational Scholarship in Service of an Emerging Field

In this essay, we begin with a theoretical articulation the worked example as a form of invitational scholarship that provides new media scholars, in particular, an important outlet for their work. A worked example leverages purposively-selected instances and multiple modes of discourse (e.g., videos, pictures, expositions, games, quotes, etc.) to establish an invitation, in response to which readers can engage theoretical claims along with contextual particulars that reflexively illuminate a class of phenomenon. The presentation both serves as a contextual instantiation of a theoretical conjecture and, by scaffolding discussion among peers around the example, invites verification or refutation of the conjecture. It is in the “working” of the example that the design affords the likelihood of a particular resonance, illuminating the designer-intended conjectures, while simultaneously allowing for further discovery. And it is in this way that we regard worked examples as offering a scholarship not of exposition but of invitation. Here, we provide an overview of the “why,” the “what,” and the “how” of the worked example. We frame the discussion in terms of the core tensions that both challenge the production and make the worked example such a powerful form of scholarly contribution. 

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