Intro and Coming to Terms

Joseph Harris’s Rewriting: How to do Things with Texts describes the art of reading and writing in a unique manner. Harris claims that academic writing focuses on a fancy term called intertextuality. Although Microsoft® Word 2010 does not recognize intertexuality as a real word and instead wishes to autocorrect it to intersexuality, the term intertexuality truly defines how intellectual writers write. Intertexuality simply means writing in response to the work of others while including original perspectives on a particular topic. Thus, writing becomes a sort of answer to another’s text because “our creativity…has its roots in the works of other” (Harris 2).  The movies we watch and the books we read affect the way we write. Harris defines writing, or more accurately, rewriting, in five different structures: coming to terms, forwarding, countering, taking an approach, and revising. Each structure provides valuable framework for forming one’s writing. In all of these structures it is necessary to critically analyze another’s writing and decide what has value enough to pass along and include in your original writing. The purpose of writing lies in the fact that original thoughts are presented by an original author, analyzed by others, critiqued, and then presented again by a different writer who includes their unique perspective. Thoughts become passed on from one writer to an audience of readers who continue the process of analyzing, critiquing, and rewriting. This purpose of writing, as defined by Harris, relates to Andrew Sullivan’s definition of blogging. Sullivan sees blogging as way for writers to express their opinions and thoughts regarding just about anything in an open and carefree manner. Other readers have access to a blogger’s writing and are able to react to the blog after analyzing and criticizing it. Or, in the words of Sullivan, “To blog is therefore to let go of your writing in a way, to hold it at arm’s length, open it to scrutiny, allow it to float in the ether for a while, and to let others… pivot you toward relative truth.”

Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How to do Things with Texts. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 2006. Print.