Forwarding

Joseph Harris’s describes his idea of forwarding as a conversation. “You read a text, you talk about it, you put down some thoughts in response, others respond to your own comments, and so on” (Harris, 34). I see forwarding as not coming up with your own original thought but rather adding your thoughts and ideas to what people have already in order to make it your own. In Harris’s idea of forwarding there are four main ideas that he brings up; Illustrating, Authorizing, Borrowing, and Extending.

            Illustrating is a way to use others works in order to back up what your opinion. Harris uses the example of writing for school. This example to me made perfect sense, a teacher will assign a prompt and a reading for you to work with. You must use the reading that is assigned to find examples of the points you are making. I see Illustrating as a way to use others texts in order to strengthen your own opinion.

            Authorizing is when you use the credibility of another writer to strengthen your writing. My understanding of Authorizing is that an individual will use the ideas and main points of a respectable writer to persuade his/her audiences. This is very effective because the reader will trust the points you are making if it is coming from a source that they know and trust.

Borrowing is when you “borrow” terms and ideas from others writer to use in your own writing. To me, Borrowing seems very similar to Illustrating but instead of using the ideas of another writer you are actually using their terms to strengthen your opinion or argument. Again, I see as another way to make your readers trust what you are saying.

Extending is a way to put your own spin on the concepts from another writing. I see Extending as a way to use the arguments of another writers work while still saying it in your own words. Just like in the other three ideas, I see this as yet another way to have the readers understand and trust what you are writing.

For an example of forwarding, the easiest one to use is this blog post. I used Harris as an example throughout this entire post to strengthen what I was saying. If I had not mentioned Harris as an example, people reading this post would have no idea if I just made up all of the terms and explanations. I was adding to the “conversation” that Harris makes about forwarding.