Approaching the Approach

In Harris’ Rewriting, he describes “Taking an Approach” as “working in the mode of another writer” (74). He also goes further in describing it by breaking it down into three component methods of relating one’s work to another: Acknowledging influences, turning an approach on itself, and reflexivity. Acknowledging influences is to define those writers whom have served as a model for you to write. Turning an approach on itself deals with asking the same questions that another writer has asked of something else. Reflexivity can be described as turning inward on the choices that you have made in order to construct your text. All three can be ways of taking an approach to what you are writing in the respect of the views of another writer.

I like the analogy that Harris uses to describe taking an approach when he compares it to a musician covering a song. Taking an approach is like covering a song in that it requires taking the work of another musician, staying true to the original phrases and ideas, but at the same time fusing it with your own creativity and expression.

Taking an approach is evident in a blog post by Andrew Sullivan that describes all of the times that Sarah Palin has “lied” to the public. Sullivan compiles a list of about thirty different lies that Palin has told spanning the time that she has been in politics. He accumulated this list from other sources that I am sure were not as forward and hurtful as he was, and made them seem his own and laid them out for the reader to see. Even though he did not come up with the information, he makes it seem like it by laying it out in a simple manner for the public to view.