https://padlet.com/tflanagan11/firstsection Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts en-us 2017-10-12 01:08:01 UTC 2025-10-08 17:59:46 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Simplehouse.png elizabethpartenach https://padlet.com/tflanagan11/firstsection/wish/204007708 I love the idea that in writing a analytical/academic essay we are interacting with a text, or multiple texts.  This idea seems so much more helpful than the idea that we are commenting on others writing.  I like the idea that we would be starting a dialogue with other authors.

]]> 2017-11-06 17:28:21 UTC https://padlet.com/tflanagan11/firstsection/wish/204007708 aaronleiva13 https://padlet.com/tflanagan11/firstsection/wish/213149822 The beginning of Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts by Joseph Harris provides an overview of how to engage students with more sophisticated writing tasks that require more research and consideration than standard essay writing.  The text supposes that students have previously mastered or at least have a working understanding of basic essay writing.  As a teacher at the middle school level, I would consider an understanding of “basic essay writing” as having knowledge of the general purpose and overall structure of an essay, which includes the larger parts (introduction, body, conclusion) and the smaller parts that tie everything together (thesis statements, transitions between paragraphs, topic sentences, supporting details, and recapping the main ideas in the conclusion).  Central to teaching this type of writing is teaching and encouraging students to tap into their thoughts and feelings about a topic and to use writing to explore topics in an extended fashion.  
 
 While it is important for students to become comfortable with expressing their thoughts within such writing tasks, the next level involves incorporating what others have said or written about such topics and how to do this effectively, which is the main focus of Harris’ book.  This is predicated upon the notion that conversations about many—if not all—possible topics have existed before the student-writer puts the pen to page, and will exist after the student’s ink has dried.  Taking students to this more sophisticated level has several challenges.  It takes some convincing to get students to understand why they need to incorporate what others have said into a writing task that is supposedly a vehicle for showcasing a student’s original thinking.  However, this is more about having students have opinions that are well-informed and carefully considered to prove a point or have a convincing argument for a variety of different purposes.  Once students are sold on this idea on a philosophical level, the biggest struggle, I find and Harris will hopefully elaborate upon, is how students select and incorporate the writing of others.  He calls this approach “rewriting” the works of others into the text.  I feel like I understand what he means by using this term, but I wonder if prefacing this task as such might become confused when students are asked to “rewrite” a paper, which usually implies making broad changes to a paper if the structure or argument are ineffective, or small changes when there are a swarm of ineffectual uses of grammar or incorrect spelling.  I  look forward to reading how Harris elaborates his usage and if he differentiates between it and other understandings of rewriting.  I personally like the idea of “repurposing” a text instead!  ]]> 2017-12-05 04:50:03 UTC https://padlet.com/tflanagan11/firstsection/wish/213149822 aaronleiva13 https://padlet.com/tflanagan11/firstsection/wish/220449379 Harris offers several approaches one may take when “rewriting” a text.  The second chapter describes how the writer can use texts in a way that does not directly challenge or critique the cited author’s work—the writer works with these texts and not against them.  Harris underscores one way of working with texts, known as “forwarding.” Forwarding, in academic writing, is the process in which we “take ideas and phrases from what [we] have read and reuse them approaching a different set of issues and texts” (38).  In doing so, the writer can illustrate, authorize, or extend upon such information.  When using a text for the purpose of illustrating, the write utilizes the text(s) as an example to prove a point.  Authorizing leverages a cited author’s credentials and expertise to support the writer’s thoughts.  Extending is to take another author’s idea and “push beyond” it by adding new information to it, and applying or repurposing it to support a point.]]> 2018-01-11 04:14:44 UTC https://padlet.com/tflanagan11/firstsection/wish/220449379