Move #4: Extending

Extending is when you “put your own spin on” the term or concept that you take from another text. Here, you are doing more than borrowing—you are changing (somewhat) the meaning of the concept. You are not criticizing the author’s concept, you are adding to its meaning or use. Extending another person’s ideas can be risky. You have to be careful that you don’t mis-appropriate their ideas.

If the stylistic signature of borrowing from another text is the note of acknowledgment (“in the words of x,” “as y suggests,” “as z uses the term”), then the characteristic marker of extending is the punning echo or substituted term (adding to the range of meanings by quoting with a difference). For example, in order to add to the ways that you could use the concept of “visual fascination” you might extend the possible uses of Scholes term by by coining your own phrase in relation that riffs off of the origin, such as “visual absorption” or “bodily fascination.”