Assignment
Coming to Terms from Rewriting, by Joseph Harris
WHAT ARE THE 3 MOVES TO COME TO TERMS WITH A TEXT?
1. Define the project of the writer in your own terms.
2. Note keywords or passages in the text.
3. Assess the uses and limits of this approach.
QUESTIONS
Q1: How do you understand Step 1?
Q2: How do you understand Step 2? Why do we quote? When do we quote?
Q3: According to Step 3, what are the "uses" and "limits" of a text?
Q4: How is coming to terms similar and different to the work we do when we write a summary?
Q5: Why is coming to terms an important part of the writing process?
DEFINE THE PROJECT
"To respond to a text, you have to summarize it, puts its key phrasings and ideas in some kind of shorthand" (16).
"[T]he question to ask is: What is the writer trying to do in this text? What is his or her project? A project is usually something far more complex than a main idea, since it refers not to a single concept but a plan of work, to a set of ideas and questions that a writer ‘throws forward'....The idea of the project thus raises questions of intent. A project is something that a writer is working on-and that a text can only imperfectly realize" (17).
AIMS: What is the writer trying to achieve? What position do they want to argue? What issues or problems do they explore?
METHODS: How does a writer relate examples to ideas? How do they connect one claim to the next, build a sense of continuity and flow?
MATERIALS: Where does the writer go for examples and evidence? What texts are cited and discussed? What experiences or events described?
NOTE KEYWORDS & PASSAGES
"There is a subtle but important distinction to make here: You don't quote from a text to explain what it means in some neutral or objective way. You quote from a text to show what your perspective on it makes visible" (20).
"In deciding when to quote, then, the question to ask is not What is the writer of this text trying to say? but What aspects of this text stand out for me as a reader? Quote to illustrate your view of a text, to single out terms or passages that strike you in some way as interesting, troubling, ambiguous, or suggestive. Weak academic essays are often marked by an overreliance on quotation, as the words of the authors quotes begin to drown out those of the person writing about them. You won't want the writers you quote to do the work for you" (20).
"Save quotation for moments that advance your project, your view of the text" (20).
"You can see quotations as flashpoints in a text, moments given a special intensity, made to stand for key concepts or issues" (22).
ASSESS USES & LIMITS
"But academics seldom write in an all-or-nothing mode, trying to convince readers to take one side or the other of an argument. Instead their work assumes that any perspective on an issue (and there are often more than two) will have moments of both insight and blindness. A frame offers a view but also brackets something out. A point of view highlights certain aspects and obscures others. And so, in dealing with other writers, your aim should be less to prove them right or wrong...than to assess both the uses and limits of their work" (25).
"Academic writers often bring a cluster of texts and perspectives into this sort of positive opposition or tension. This is more complex and interesting work than simply taking sides in a debate, since it involves thinking through the potential uses of a number of positions rather than arguing for or against a fixed point of view" (25).
"In coming to terms with a text, then, they key questions to ask have to do not with correctness but use. What does this text do or see well? What does it stumble over or occlude?" (25).
"I am urging you to approach writing with an active mix of skepticism and generosity-both to look for gaps or difficulties in perspectives you admire and also to try to understand the strengths of those you don't" (27).
Attachment:- Introductions-Conclusions.rar