Writing and Race Matters
Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How to do Things with Text. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press, 2006.
COMING TO TERMS:
(15) “not only to explain what you think [text] means, but to say something about the perspective from which you are reading it”
Three moves in coming to terms:
*define the project of the writer in your own terms
What is the writer’s position or arguments? What issues or problems does the writer wish to explore?
*note keywords or passages in the text How does the writer connect the examples to the ideas presented? What aspects of this text stand out for me as a reader?
* assess the uses and limits of this approach What “texts” does the writer access for examples or evidence?
(20) “You don’t need to re-explain a text to somebody who has already read it. But you can offer a different way of reading that text, to point our how your perspective allows you to notice something new about it.”
Quotations:
“Weak academic essays are often marked by an over-reliance on quotation. . . .You want the focus of your readers instead to be on your ideas, to draw their attention not to the texts you’re quoting but to the work you’re doing with those texts. . . .Save quotation for moments that advance your project, or your view of the text.”
(21) “Summarize when what you have to say about a text is routine and quote when it is more contentious.”
(22) Example from Race Matters by Cornell West
(24) Assignment for Coming to Terms – use with selected article on environmental issue chosen for class
(25) “. . . your aim should be less to prove [the author] right or wrong, correct or mistaken, than to assess both the uses and limits of their work. That is to say, academic writing rarely involves a simple taking of sides, an attack on or defense of set positions, but rather centers on a weighing of options, a sorting through of possibilities.”
Positive opposing terms: “words and values that don’t contradict each other
COMING TO TERMS:
(15) “not only to explain what you think [text] means, but to say something about the perspective from which you are reading it”
Three moves in coming to terms:
*define the project of the writer in your own terms
What is the writer’s position or arguments? What issues or problems does the writer wish to explore?
*note keywords or passages in the text How does the writer connect the examples to the ideas presented? What aspects of this text stand out for me as a reader?
* assess the uses and limits of this approach What “texts” does the writer access for examples or evidence?
(20) “You don’t need to re-explain a text to somebody who has already read it. But you can offer a different way of reading that text, to point our how your perspective allows you to notice something new about it.”
Quotations:
“Weak academic essays are often marked by an over-reliance on quotation. . . .You want the focus of your readers instead to be on your ideas, to draw their attention not to the texts you’re quoting but to the work you’re doing with those texts. . . .Save quotation for moments that advance your project, or your view of the text.”
(21) “Summarize when what you have to say about a text is routine and quote when it is more contentious.”
(22) Example from Race Matters by Cornell West
(24) Assignment for Coming to Terms – use with selected article on environmental issue chosen for class
(25) “. . . your aim should be less to prove [the author] right or wrong, correct or mistaken, than to assess both the uses and limits of their work. That is to say, academic writing rarely involves a simple taking of sides, an attack on or defense of set positions, but rather centers on a weighing of options, a sorting through of possibilities.”
Positive opposing terms: “words and values that don’t contradict each other