Expansion Pack

Once again, I am astounded by the reading selection for this class. Joseph Harris tackles the world of writing with an entirely new bent, and one that intrigues me. He talks not about writing itself, but "rewriting", a process he says is "drawing on, commenting on, adding to-- the work of others." Essentially, I can deduce from that that American education system is NOT out to make us good writers. . . . but to make us outstanding rewriters. The system frequently appears to fail in this goal, for we are taught the grammar of the English language, and thrown to the wolves, often starting with a first "book report." What educators expect from us, and that is to assimilate, process, and rework the text we have, is NEVER a concept that is taught. This presentation is the first I've heard of the idea. I have, of course, heard of paraphrasing . . . . which is very concentrated rewriting. We are very rarely, if ever, offered the chance in academia to purely free-write. We are always basing our thoughts, ideas, and facts off of someone else, which is the epitome' of rewriting.

The supreme act of rewriting seems to be UNDERSTANDING. Harris makes the point over and over that one needs to process, digest, and expound on the ideas an author offers up. If one doesn't truly UNDERSTAND the text being read, then re-working the text will be close to impossible. He offers several methods of digesting a text, but they all center around this key idea: understanding.

Harrison and Sullivan share some interesting connections, and the biggest of which is that writing is alive. Harrison speaks of the exciting new ideas that can be found in an ancient text, whereas Sullivan speaks of the moment to moment thrill of blogging. Both find exhiliaration in examining, processing, and mulling over, a piece of text. Many think that once the words are on the paper, they are forever stagnant. . . .yet these two strongly believe elsewise.