As I continue to read his book, I am getting the feeling
that Harris is getting a little repetitive. Most of the concepts he explains
seem to have a lot of similarities. His Taking an Approach concept sounds very
similar to Forwarding, Coming to Terms, and Countering. In all of these we as
writers are using works that have already been writer and points that have
already been made and making them our own. Creating something original from
something original. “The original does
not go away but is remade into something new.” Taking an Approach is working in
the mode of another writer adopting their style. Taking an Approach can have
various forms depending on the choices the writer makes when they read any
given work. The New York Times most often does not take an approach because
they are reporting news and facts and these are more important to its readers
than the style of writing. But in blogs and the opinion section of the Times
taking an approach is most likely widely used. Because these types of writing
are opinion based people often attempt to create original thoughts or ideas
based on the work of another, essentially Taking an Approach. Many opinion
articles will read fact based stories and create unique opinions and
perspectives based on the unbiased sources. This is a way to Take an Approach
on something which improves the quality of the writing. In any opinion or
argument based writing, it is extremely difficult to avoid Taking an Approach
because this is essentially what one has to do in order to form a unique
opinion or argument.
Harris is a bit repetitive. However, I think that the repetition is intentional. I think that Harris takes his previous points and expands on them. All the different types of "rewriting" have very slight differences.
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