Been A While

I know it's been a while, but I finally made it back. It is hard to stay away. My reasons for coming back are as follow: I do have much to say, but I feel like nobody is willing to listen. I guess I have Marcella to thank for me coming back. After reading her blog I realized that writing can heal a hurt-soul just as well as anything else. I hope that I can come back more often and write.

Last Post for ENGL 105

Due to technical difficulties, I could not copy and paste my last post for my English class onto this blog. However, here is the blog post on google docs.

Second Draft of Paper: "Life of H1N1 as a News Story"

Here is my second draft. I tried to revise the paper, but most of my changes were done by editing. I tried to make this draft read a little smoother by changing some of the wording.

English 105 - Paper 2

Click the link to read my English Paper, if you will.

Taking an Approach

Harris says “taking an approach” is like reworking a piece. How can you rework a piece and maintain what the author was saying, while creating a new approach of your own. I think that without careful work, the process could be mislabeled as plagiarism. However, it goes on all the time, as Harris points out. “The cover song, in which one musician reinterprets a song associated with another, is a staple of rock and roll. And what you listen for in a good cover is not an imitation of the original, as in karaoke or American Idol, but a new rendering of it.”

News stories are very similar to the above example. Each writer reads an article, or several articles, in order to formulate the basis of his article. He takes what others have said into account, but the paper he writes is based more upon what he feels about the subject. Just like in music. The songwriter takes someone else’s words and expands or reworks them to formulate his own opinion.

This idea borders on the idea of plagiarism. Why? Well, you are taking other peoples’ work and creating your own piece out of it. But you do not cite your sources because you are not copying from them. You simply take what they have to say, and rework it in order to take some approach of you own. Though, this occurs all the time in the real world, I still feel like the idea of taking an approach should be further investigated by a writer in order to be fair and genuine in their work.

In Revision of "I Contradict To Contradict"

Though I do agree with my previous statement that you should not contradict a work unless there is some underlying purpose, I would, however, choose to “re-present” the term “contradict.” When in fact the post should have been about countering, I used the wrong terminology. Though, I do still hold that “the effectiveness of a contradiction should not be based on how well argued the ideas are, but rather of why they are being argued in the first place.”

Rather I wish to point out that in using the term “contradict,” I have in fact biased what Harris was saying. Harris would likely use the idea of contradicting in a different way than countering, whereas I was using the two interchangeably. Contradicting is the act of arguing against what someone is saying to the fullest. However, countering is more centered on the idea of taking what you are reading or thinking about, and forwarding it. The idea of “yes, but…” is more of what Harris is saying.

Though I did not realize it at the time, the words are terribly different when looked at again. Thus I have begun to realize the true value of word choice. We need to be careful in what words we choose to represent what we are trying to say. Even as I write this, I am consciously considering each word that is making up this blog post. Without effective word choice, the ideas you are trying to express can be hampered by the readers misunderstanding of the words you use.

Therefore, I have hopefully learned to consider whether I have picked the correct word or not. Granted, you can never truly know if your point is coming across the way you wish it, you should at least try to be correct in your word choice in order to do your point justice.

I Contradict To Contradict

If you are contradictory for the sake of being contradictory, then you need to stop contradicting. You need to produce something from your contradiction in order to make a necessary contradictory statement. Why?

It is quite easy to contradict a piece for the sake of showing the faults of that piece. But, when Harris quotes his professor, we see a new idea. The idea that it does not matter what the writer did wrong because you have chosen a piece that is easily contradicted and for no great purpose. This idea of contradicting for a purpose is exactly what Harris discusses in this chapter.

So, we know what Harris’s statement is, but why would he say this? The effectiveness of a contradiction should not be based on how well argued the ideas are, but rather of why they are being argued in the first place. Harris believes that in order to effectively contradict someone there must be some purpose that would help society. The kind of purpose can be argued, but the main idea is that you almost further a piece if you successfully contradict it. If you can bring up old topics, or put a new spin on them by your arguing, then I believe Harris would likely say that you effectively contradicted for some purpose.

In all of Harris’s statements and opinions, he pushes for the idea of “re-presenting.” Therefore, Harris, himself, uses contradictions in order to further his own writing. So, the next time you read a Hedges article, don’t immediately respond to it. Think about how what you write could further what you have read, not only your own piece.