Forwarding in Writing

In “Rewriting” Harris describes one of the ways that we can rewrite, “forwarding”. Forwarding is taking another person’s written work and using that work to help you form your own statement. This can be done using four different techniques. First there is illustrating, where you describe a text as an example for your own work such as describing a car commercial. Next there is authorizing where you use the status of another writer for support. Then there is borrowing where you use the key words or ideas from another writer to support your writing. Finally there is extending where you add your own opinions to the writing of another. Each of these techniques can be used to add to your own writing by drawing on the writings of others. This gives writing a more conversational feel as opposed to a debate. This is because with rewriting nobody really “wins”. Rather than winning you just add your own opinion to a topic and then continue on. While this can be very beneficial to writing it can also cause the writing to lose something. With this writing you lose the beginning. With a continuous conversation you may lose the credit of whoever started it or the purpose behind it.

Reading Bill Moyers’ article “Freedom of and From Religion” in the Huffington Post was a good example of forwarding. In his article Moyers discusses the contraceptive law that is becoming quite controversial in Congress right now. He discusses his own view of what is going on especially how it is connected with the First Amendment. In doing this he draws on Barack Obama’s views, discussing what Obama is trying to do to amend the situation. I especially liked how he quoted a speech Obama gave in 2009. It really brought the point that the writer was trying to make to home. In his writing Moyers used the notions of authorizing and extending. Taking both the status of Obama and his opinions while putting his own spin on what is going on in Congress. In my opinion this was a very well-written post.