straight forward(ing)

When first approaching this assignment, I of course had my own ideas and expectations of what it would be about. When relating the word ‘forwarding’ to writing, I specifically and technically just think of using direct text and ‘forwarding’ it in your paper to help make a point of to demonstrate something. Although Harris’ idea and explanation of forwarding somewhat touches on that meaning and definition, I would say that the point he is trying to make is that forwarding is more about using the work -whether in print, picture, video, song, or some other form of displaying an idea- to focus more on what your project is and how to forward something to extend its uses, not so much on a text and “what its author has to say,” as Harris puts it.

Harris mentions four different ways in which an author can forward another document: Illustrating, Authorizing, Borrowing, and Extending. He goes into detail of each, describing and giving examples of how each can be incorporated into your own work to push ideas and push discussion, which was also a main point in this chapter: discussion.

Harris mentions quite often about how important it is to write a piece of work that will evoke discussion and conversation. He seems to be saying that by forwarding something by another author, you are creating a conversation about their work and analyzing the meaning and using their source to enhance your ideas or develop them, just as what you are writing will allow other writers to do; to use your work to open yet another discussion or carry on the conversation.

In one of the blogs I am following, Hot Air, I remembered a specific article I had read about Democrats in New York City. In the article “Dems miss an opportunity in New York City,” author Ed Morrissey uses the technique of illustrating when he directly quotes from another source about the topic of the race for mayor in New York City. In a nutshell, the article was about how democrats didn’t do enough and push their campaign to win the election over the less favorable republican. Morrissey develops his own idea and strongly argues or defends his opinion by using an excerpt from the source and then pushing his own ideas of why the election had such a result.