Assignment: In Harri’s Rewriting are what he calls “projects.” We can
call them assignments. Either way they are exercises that have to do
with the subject matter presented in each chapter of his book. When
doing the Essay a Day… assignment we can apply these projects to the
specific essay that we use. Hurray! I am a genius!
Also, the cumulative work of this book, will be showcased in the
personal essay that I am developing to be included as my final writing
assignment.
Chapter One from Rewriting: Coming to Terms NOTES
1.) A writer’s project: Harris poses the question: How do you
summarize someone else’s text or body of work without short changing
it? Often times we are given the advice to restate the “main idea” or
“thesis” of a text, but Harris says such advice “imagines a piece of
writing as something fixed or static, as an argument that a writer has
“constructed or a position that she has “defended.”
Harris goes on to say however that many writers don’t argue for a
single claim or position as think through a complex set of texts and
problems. (Harris, pg.15)
-What issues drive this essay?
-What ideas does it explore?
-What lines of inquiry does it develop?
-What is the writing trying to do in this text?
-What is his or her project?
“A writers project is usually something far more complex than a main
idea, since it refers not to a single concept but to a plan of work,
to a set of ideas and questions that a writer “throws forward”…The
idea of a project thus raises the question of intent. A Project is
something that a writer is working on –and a text can only imperfectly
realize.” (15)
Questions to ask when defining the projects of other writers:
Aims: What is the writer trying to achieve? What position does he or
she want to argue? What issues or problems does he or she explore?
Methods: How does a writer relate examples to idea? How does he or she
connect one claim to the next, build a sense of continuity and flow?
Materials: Where does the writer go for examples and evidence? What
texts are cited and discusses? What experiences or events are
described? (19)
On noting keywords and passages: In order to come to terms with a
complex text you need to be able to “ground” how you define the
project of a writer by citing key passages from their text. Quotations
should be short and pointed.
-In deciding when to quote don’t ask, what is the writing of this text
trying to say, but, what aspects of this text stand out for me as a
reader? Harris explains that weak academic essay (again we are
applying his knowledge to a broader range of creative nonfiction) are
often marked by an over reliance on quotation. He says that we don’t
want to quotes to do the work for us. (20) We want the reader to focus
instead on our own writing, to draw a readers attention not to the
texts we’re quoting but to what we’re doing with what we decide to
quote.
Try to paraphrase the work as quickly and accurately as you can. Save
quotation for moments that advance your project, your view of the
text. –Harris
Definition for flashpoint: moments of quotations that give your piece
a special intensity, made to stand for key concepts or issues. Quote
only phrases or passages that you want you want to further elaborate
or bring focus to. Harris uses: counter, revise, echo, or transform
(22).
-Harris explains that quotation serves to purposes: 1.) a break in the
paraphrase 2.) quotation can intensify paraphrase. This opportunity
can intensify certain parts of the language.
Assessing uses and limits
Here is some of that wonderful philosophy that changes academic
writing from static or fixed, these two verbs that are often times
used, to more active or engaging, or open up to insight and argument
and progression. “Academic writing rarely involves a simple taking of
sides, an attack on or defense of set positions, but rather centers on
a weighing of options, a sorting through of possibilities.” (25)
Harris explains that “intellectual writing” rarely works within the
narrow frame point of antithesis (either x or no –x) but with what he
calls “positive opposing terms” or words and values that don’t
contradict each other but exist in “ongoing tension.”
Two kinds of discourse in writing: Stories, which we use in evoking
the felt quality of events, and theories, which we use in analyzing
their meanings. A story is not merely a bad version of a theory or
vice versa.
Harris explains that many academic writers bring multiple texts and
perspectives into the mix of opposition and tension and this makes for
more dynamic and interesting writing. More complex than just taking
sides in a debate since “it involves thinking through the potential
uses of a number of positions rather than arguing for or against a
fixed point of view.” (25).
Some notes on aesthetics:
Block quotes: These are the guys that are indented on the page and
usually smaller or in a different font, depending on requirement and
context. Harris suggests, a block quote emphasizes a piece of work
that we want to come back to and do more work with.
In-text quotes: Mostly used to not an emphasize key terms and
phrasings, to add and to qualify paraphrasing. (26)
Scare Quotes: Harris explains that punctuations create distance (very
interesting) hence the physical of people “quoting” something that is
absurd or outlandish or something that they want to keep some distance
from.
Epigraphs: Setting a quotation at the top of a book or essay. Harris
explains that when epigraphs are done well they can serve as a kind of
“poetic précis of a text, summing up its aim or scope –even if its
full meaning does not always become clear until the piece has been
read through and the epigraph considered a second time.” Not done well
=self importantly literary, too erudite by half. (31)
Allusions: The quote is not directly introduced, but something is
implied. So for example, if you introduce a block quote, or are
analyzing a particular piece of work, and you’re using it a lot in
your writing, the readership will probably understand, or be familiar
with what you’ve been paraphrasing.
“You come to terms with a text by translating its words and ideas into
your own language, making them part of your own prose –not only
re-presenting the work of another writer but also, at times, actually
retyping it as you quote key terms and passages from a text.” –Harris
No comments:
Post a Comment