Forwarding

Harris discusses how academic writers need to add to previous texts to formulate their own arguments. In my view, what academic writers do is like what a restaurant does to a recipe. They add one or two special ingredients to the recipe to make it their own and better than any other out there. For example, the restaurant Earls has great sticky toffee pudding. But, Colt and Gray adds a special touch –probably another ingredient – to the dessert that makes it better and unique. Harris calls this “forwarding.” In this view, you are keeping the focus on your own project, but still using the other author’s text. When forwarding, Harris describes four different approaches: illustrating, authorizing, borrowing, and extending. To use the illustrating approach, you look at other texts as examples for your own point. When authorizing, you use the expertise or status of an individual to back up your thinking. Next, when you are borrowing you use terms from another author to help understand your thought process. Last, when extending, you add your own thoughts to concepts from other texts.

            In the White House Blog, they use illustrating most often when forwarding a text. For example, they include letters from average Americans that say how much forty dollars off each paycheck would affect their families. Without the current tax cut, people will lose about forty dollars on each paycheck. In order to argue their point that the tax cut should be extended, they collected letters saying how losing money will negatively affect citizens and posted excerpts on the blog. By adding these letters in, it gives them an advantage of showing the consequences of Washington's actions, and giving the appearance that the government stays close to its people. These excerpts only add to Obama's position on tax cuts, and do not take away anything from the post.