Rewriting as in Forwarding

Forwarding has many definitions. According to dictionary.com, the word “forward” has eighteen alternate definitions. However, all of the definitions have a similar meaning. Forward is an act of going further than that of the before. According to Harris, though forwarding is the idea of taking an existing conversation (i.e. paper, discussion, or anything of literary value) and furthering that conversation.

Even images or videos can spur a response. Harris is really saying that in order to forward a discussion, you have to add to that discussion. The hardest task, I think, would be if you were given a dead argument to bring back to life. That is what Harris is saying here. You need to bring an argument, in whatever form, back from the graveyard of literature. For example: The article you are being given is on the idea of the plague being a worldly epidemic in the 21st century. Well, obviously, this is a dead subject. But, if you could draw from the past some shred of evidence that says swine flu is the new black death of the time, then you could successfully bring back a dead subject.

But, after all, what would it matter? Well, Harris goes at the basis of how we should forward a work. His process includes “illustrating, authorizing, borrowing, and extending.” As we continue to read through all these processes, we are geared toward the fact that what we are doing, or trying to do, with the forwarding of a piece is to make it better. Every piece of literature has some meaning to some particular people in society. In order to make that piece of literature continue to have a meaning, we “re-present,” as Harris calls it, the material in a new way. So, we do this because we don’t want a subject to die. We don’t want to wake up one day and realize that what we love to read about is not a news story anymore and therefore has been deemed unnecessary for viewing. So, Harris’s “Forwarding” chapter helps us to see how discussions are forwarded, and the chapter leads us to believe that without this idea of forwarding, that the world of literature as we know it could cease to exist.

So, “the next time you write an essay in which you discuss a nonprint text, try to find a way to incorporate that text as seamlessly as you can into your document.” And revisit the old in order that you may further the conversation with your paper.