Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts

by Joseph Harris

Book Overview

"Like all writers, intellectuals need to say something new and say it well. But unlike many other writers, what intellectuals have to say is bound up with the books we are reading . . . and the ideas of the people we are talking with."

What are the moves that an academic writer makes? How does writing as an intellectual change the way we work from sources? In Rewriting, a textbook for the undergraduate classroom, Joseph Harris draws...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874216427
• ISBN13: 9780874216424
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Utah State University Press
• Length: 150 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

An excellent guide to writing rigorous and lively academic or intellectual writing

This book has helped me immensely in my teaching and in my own writing. I use it as a textbook for my college composition students. Four chapters are on making "interesting use of sources" in your writing. These chapters--"Coming to Terms" (more than just summarizing), "Forwarding" (more than just agreeing with), "Countering" (more than just disagreeing) and "Taking an Approach" (more than just "applying" someone else' ideas)--show the moves for using the words and ideas of others to present and develop words and ideas of your own. The final chapter on "Revising" gives practical, useful ideas and strategies for moving beyond a first draft. The "Afterward" lays out in brief Harris' idea of a writing course. Though somewhat positioned as "bonus" chapters, either of them alone are worth reading the book for. The explanations of concepts throughout are clear and yet intellectually rich enough to chew on. One of the biggest strengths of this book are the very concrete examples throughout, often in the form of multi-paragraph quotations from published intellectual writing. It is much more of a "book" than a "textbook." Harris' intelligent and generous voice comes through well in the writing.

Recommended for intermediate to advanced academic writers

Written by Duke University Writing Program director Joseph Harris, Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts is a guide written especially for college students and professionals seeking to refine their academic writing technique. Leaning away from the static ideas of thesis, support and structure and toward a more naturally flowing and dynamic writing style, Rewriting challenges the reader to think of writing an adaptive, social activity and shape one's written intellectual opinions and discussions accordingly. Presented strategies for coaxing a more persuasive and intuitive tone into one's logical academic written arguments include forwarding (taking words, images, or ideas from text and putting them to use in new contexts), countering (suggesting different ways of thinking rather than simple nullification of a given ideal), and much more. Recommended for intermediate to advanced academic writers for its solid recommendations to make prose more readable, immersive, thought-provoking and natural-sounding.