Joseph Harris sees forwarding not
as a form of debating, but as a method of conversation. Forwarding, according to Harris, is a way in
which to keep a conversation going, to add to it, expand on it and give life to
it. He does break this concept into four
categories: illustrating, authorizing, borrowing, and extending.
Illustrating: Looking at others’ works to prove your own
point.
Authorizing: Using the respectability of another writer to
support your own idea.
Borrowing: Drawing on other writers’ concepts or phrases to
use in “thinking through your subject”(Harris, 39).
Extending: Putting your own “spin on another’s “terms” or “concepts”
from other texts.
In an opinionated article posted on
the NYT by Dick Cavett called “More on Guns, With Readers”, the concept of
forwarding is evident. Specifically,
Cavett makes use of borrowing, authorizing, and illustrating within his
post. At the start of his post, he
refers to the writing of another, in this case a man named Terry from Nevada, borrowing his words as a way to later
express his own views. Cavett quotes the
post made by Terry; to keep it whole and contextual to the reader. Almost simultaneously, to illustrate through vivid textual phrasing, Cavett responds to and
expands Terry’s opinion:
Yes, Terry, it would take
extremely skillful Bushmaster-wielders to hold out for long against that same
evil government’s jet bombers, rocket grenades, tear gas, off-shore gunships,
heavy-duty cannons and napalm. Not to mention drones.
Afterwards, Cavett continues to make use of Terry’s
statement by using it as a platform in which to move his ideas in a new
direction. Following this, he later
employs authorization, in which he
contacts Don Imus as a source to help expand his own point on why men are most
often the mass-shooters. However, Cavett
does not provide any actual quoted reference.
He simply generalizes what was said.
This example highlights some good use as well as bad use of
forwarding. Cavett successfully uses
borrowing, but lacks in regards to his authorization and slightly in his
illustration. As I mentioned, he doesn’t
actually quote his source for authorization, therefore diminishing it. But Harris himself said, “the strategies I
describe in this book are just that” strategies, moves, ways of advancing your
own project as a writer” (Harris, 49).
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