rewriting

If you remember one of our recent classes, you will recall the exercise where we came up with different ideas and thoughts of what the definition of the word writing is - to express our thoughts or emotions, to use paper or other means to record and transfer, to organize thoughts and to convey clear messages –just to list a few. After reading the introduction and first section of Joseph Harris’ book “Rewriting,” the author’s opinion if writing, according to this book and in regards to the writings of others, is more than just recording thoughts and ideas. Harris feels as if writing is more than just expressing how you feel or what you individually think. Writing also includes being able to use the work of others and actually understand “what a speaker is trying to do,” and then using that to explore your own ideas and be assertive in anything that you may write (Harris 3).
Harris focuses on what it means to be able to actually read someone’s work, to understand what has been said, and then to ‘participate’ in writing. His goal is to teach the reader of the book how to be active in writing and how to ‘do things with texts’. As the title of the book states, Harris calls this form of writing ‘rewriting.’ You are, in a sense, rewriting the works of others by drawing from, commenting on, and adding to them after you have come to an understanding of what they are trying to do.
Harris’ form of actively interacting with other writers in ways to comment and add on to their ideas can be related to the way Andrew Sullivan writes in his blogs. In a blog, you have the opportunity to comment on what the author has said. This is the idea that Harris has proposed -“to take a stance toward the works of others,”- and Sullivan’s blogging requires the interaction of people in their writings, even if it is just through their commenting on a blog post.