Writing About Writing (p.86-100)
Reading Response
“Intertextuality and
the Discourse Community” by James E. Porter
Summary:
In “Intertextuality and the
Discourse Community,” James E. Porter attempts to explain his “intertextuality
theory” in rhetorical terms, how it is linked to discourse communities, and its
pedagogical suggestions for writing structure. Porter explains exactly what
“Intertext,” or just “Text,” is and divides it into two types. He explains that
the two types of intertextuality are iterability (or repeatability) and
presupposition (or “assumptions a text makes about its referent, its readers,
and its context”). Porter claims that pure originality/authorship is attainable
but is rare and that most work involves a writer organizing traces, codes, and
signs into a new text for a specific discourse community. Porter questions what
plagiarism really is and the false views about writing imposed on young
writers. He believes that intertextuality should be explained early on and that
young writers should be assisted in becoming “socialized” in a discourse
community of their choice.
Synthesis:
Porter’s article obviously is
related to Greene’s article because he is making a rather strong argument about
authorship, plagiarism, originality, and writing processes related to different
discourse communities. This article is also related to Kleine’s text because
Kleine explains the “hunting” and “gathering” method for finding information,
and Porter explains how older texts are gathered (or hunted for) to create a
new work. That in itself also relates this article to Kantz. Kantz wrote all
about using older texts to make a new one and that is essentially the main
topic of Porter’s article. This article even relates to Berger and McLoud’s
visual construct articles because Porter explains how intertextuality can even
be used in works such as the Pepsi commercial (wish is a very visual thing).
Porter touches on how a true “inspired writer” in the world we live in now is
nearly impossible to achieve and that almost all texts are woven from the past;
therefore this article is related to Allen’s article about real writers and the
myth of an inspired writer. Porter’s article may be related to
Berkenkotter/Murray, Lamott, King, Díaz, and Elbow, but I do not see the connection
right away.
Before You Read
Exercise:
I’ve never really thought about the
difference between an author and a writer. I guess I’ve always thought the
terms were synonymous and used the interchangeably. However, If I had to
distinguish the two, I would say an author produces stories and a writer
produces articles and papers. I could very well be misled, though.
Questions for
Discussion and Journaling:
4.
I have always been taught that writing is evaluated on whether or not it
is clear, concise, and relevant. Clear meant that it was organized. Concise
meant that the information was to the point and was presented in an organized
fashion. And, relevant meant that it pertained to the topic that I had been
assigned. Since I have always been assigned a topic that honestly never
interested me, and my audience was strictly my teacher, I have never even been
formally introduced to any specific discourse community. With that said, I
would have to say that Porters argument, that the main evaluating point for
writing is acceptability within the reader’s community, is a new world for me.
My reader has always been my teacher, not those who were knowledgeable or
curious about my topic. I definitely wanted my teacher to “accept” my work, but
I’m not too sure that’s what Porter was referring to. Now that I am in college
and am taking classes in specific subjects, learning about specific topics, in
areas specific to my interests- I think Porter’s argument seems much more
reasonable to me. However, in my past, my writing has never been evaluated that
way.
5.
As I was reading Porter’s article, I noticed that he cited several other
writers and he cited them often. In
other words, Porter practiced what he preached. He used the “traces, codes, and
signs” from other works to create his own article. He was demonstrating his
intertextuality theory right in his own work. I think that Porter would agree
that he was not writing as an “autonomous individual” and that, even though he
practiced effective writing by finding and organizing older textual pieces, his
article is not completely original.
Applying and Exploring
Ideas:
2.
New Plagiarism Policy: Students shall not incorporate previous
texts into their work without proper citation. Students shall build off of the
ideas of other writers to insure that their whole assignment is not composed of
just citations. Failure to cite other work or engage in the academic
conversation adequately will result in a course grade of F. (adapted from syllabus)
Old
Plagiarism Policy: Cheating—whether by claiming another’s ideas
or work as your own (fraud) or making up or falsifying information
(fabrication)—will result in a course grade of F and a report to Community
Standards. You are at all times responsible for handling sources ethically by
acknowledging the author and source of directly borrowed ideas and language in
your writing. (taken from syllabus)
Comparison:
I think that the old policy was adequate enough because our English
department knows what to account for in regards to writing. They have read
Porter’s work before and have defined plagiarism on terms that are relevant to
this course. However, the new policy, for sake of this assignment, adds that
the student should be able to engage in the conversation even if they have used
a lot of other cited work.
Meta Moment:
Porter’s article about writers and writing
hasn’t really changed my thoughts about writers writing alone. He says that
borrowing text from others is basically what intertextuality is- and that makes
since- but that doesn’t change whether or not a writer works alone or not. I do
view writing itself differently now, thought. It’s ok to refer to other
writers’ work and to use that in developing and supporting your own argument-
you just have to make sure to give them credit, make sure it’s relevant to what
your trying to say, and organize it all in a logical way. My future assignments
will be a little easier now that I have read Porter’s view or writers, writing,
plagiarism, and intertextuality.
My Personal Thoughts:
To be honest, I feel like we have covered
most of the ideas in Porter’s article already in this course. He did introduce
new terminology, but I thought it was already made clear that using older texts
to create and support your own argument was acceptable. This reading was kind
of repetitive and boring for me. There wasn’t anything too exciting about it,
but I do think it will help me in my future writing assignments as it pertains
to writing for my particular discourse community.
Did you see traces of the Matrix in his text?
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