Taking Harris' Approach

In “Rewriting” Harris describes “taking an approach” comparing it mostly to the concept of cover songs. It’s taking the idea, frame, form of writing, and many other different writing techniques and styles from an author and using it to build your own. One way that you can write by taking an approach is by acknowledging your influences, noting authors ideas and concepts that have an influence on your work. Another way that you can write by taking an approach is turning an approach on itself by asking the author the questions that they originally posed to their readers. The final way to write by taking an approach is by using reflexivity or reflecting on the key choices that you have made in your writing such as the method and the way that you write. It is important to note that when you take an approach you do not simply rewrite or paraphrase passages or lines. When taking an approach you borrow a writer’s style and way of writing. I think that in taking an approach, it can help you form your opinion and help you give a clear format for you to show your opinion to others. However, it is important that when taking an approach you do not just steal everything that the writer has done. It is important that you put your own spin on what you’re writing. It is silly to write something that has already been without adding something to the “conversation”.

Reading the Huffington Post, I can see that every reader has a very distinct way of writing. It was difficult trying to find an example of a writer “taking an approach”. None of the articles that I have read have really cited their influences or reflected on why they wrote the way that they did. I think that almost everybody takes an approach in some way. Depending on what we’ve read in our life and what kind of language we were raised in, it influences the way that we write. It would be crazy to write out our influences every time that we write. However, I can see the importance if you take a particular writing format to make sure that you note why you are doing it.