In his book Rewriting, Joseph Harris offers an interesting perspective on the act of writing and its purpose. Harris says that "the real excitement of intellectual writing" is "the chance to engage with and rewrite the work of other thinkers." To Harris, it is important to "push and question" what the writer has read about or seen before (2). A writer should not just take everything at face value, but rather should examine the text, "rethink" it, and "reinterpret" it (2). He introduces this idea of being an interactive reader.
He invites the readers, a.k.a. us, to question why we write. Who are
we trying to interest? For what reason are we creating a text?
I think Harris is a fan of blogging, for the most part, and would
cheer us on, specifically, for our blogging for class purposes. He states that
he is interested in writing that is open to general readers, which is exactly
what blogging is. We are “[seeking]… to address a broader and more public set
of issues and readers” (10). Is that not what we are doing? Is that not what most people on the blogosphere are doing? Why create a blog if not for the readers? Whatever the topic or style, each blog addresses an audience and fits into some niche.
Harris describes texts as artifacts because they have been “made and designed.” In this way, they can “be shelved, filed, or stored and the retrieved and reexamined” (11). This definition of writing by Harris is similar to Sullivan’s view of blogging. The reason Sullivan blogged was to have the chance to receive feedback and expand on his writing skills. Harris offers the same idea that writing allows a dialogue of sorts through taking bits and pieces of the works of others and "rewriting" them with our own interpretations and ideas.
Harris describes texts as artifacts because they have been “made and designed.” In this way, they can “be shelved, filed, or stored and the retrieved and reexamined” (11). This definition of writing by Harris is similar to Sullivan’s view of blogging. The reason Sullivan blogged was to have the chance to receive feedback and expand on his writing skills. Harris offers the same idea that writing allows a dialogue of sorts through taking bits and pieces of the works of others and "rewriting" them with our own interpretations and ideas.
Do you agree with Harris? Is writing, even in the case of blogging, intellectual writing? Should we take what we read and "rethink" it as Harris describes? Why do you read? Why do you write? Do you write for the same purposes that Harris and Sullivan do, or for different reasons entirely?
If you want to check it out, here is some positive feedback from other students and writers alike. To see praise for Harris in Rewriting - CLICK HERE
"And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." - Sylvia Plath
"No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader." - Robert Frost
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