P6: Forwarding

"But a text is also an artifact; it is not only something you say but something you make."

-Joseph Harris  

In Rewriting Chapter 2, Harris introduces the idea of illustrating, authorizing, borrowing and extending as forms of "forwarding" a text. Harris utilizes e-mail, a previous metaphor, to describe "forwarding" as a continuation of thoughts and comments as opposed to a simple reply which takes you back to the original work. Each of the different methods of "forwarding" focus on expanding on a piece of text. Illustrating uses text to describe non-text sources like videos, pictures and other media. Authorizing uses direct quotes to authorize an idea or concept the author will elaborate or build off of. Borrowing takes an idea from another author and uses it within their own piece to strengthen an argument. Extending uses an idea and elaborates and changes it to fit their own piece.

DailyIntel had a recent article entitled "Isn't Foster Friess's Bad Aspirin Joke Basically Rick Santorum's Actual Perception on Contraception?" This article concerned the controversial joke that one of Rick Santorum's affiliates, Foster Friess, made in which he declared that the most effective birth control is to "hold an aspirin between your legs." The article directly quotes Santorum and Friess in order to authorize their comments and make the situation clear. Then the author breaks down how the joke was a crude way to say "keep your legs together" or to promote abstinence. Although Santorum obviously wants to distance himself from a vulgar way of advocating for abstinence, the author points out that Friess was actually following Santorum's platform. I think that the use of authorizing greatly strengthens the authors argument and adds to the truth of the story.