Taking an Approach

I found this chapter, Taking an Approach, in Joseph Harris’ book to be the most confusing so far. I’m not going to lie, I don’t exactly know what Harris means by taking an approach but I think I get it enough to get through this post. Taking an approach, to me, is very similar to the other chapters of the book in the sense that it talks about using other people’s writings in your own. The only thing that changes in Taking an Approach is that you are now using the other writer’s style along with their words.

So I’m not positive if I have the full understanding of what Taking an Approach really means, but I will attempt to give examples from the New York Times and the blogs I am reading. First of all, one blog I am following pretty much only posts links to other blogs so I don’t think Taking an Approach applies to this blog. The sports blog I am following though uses a more straight forward style by just telling the story how it is but I have also noticed a little bit of sarcasm in some of the posts. Then, The New York Times’ style is more professional than the blogs. It doesn’t have the freedom of the blogs having no editors, so the New York Time’s style is more of the facts compared to the blogs which use more opinion.

What can be gained by Taking an Approach is that it is another way to use another writers writing in your own. What can be lost, and probably the part that confuses me in this chapter, is when writing in the style of another author, you lose your own style. And there is always the chance that someone may misinterpret the style of another author and when they try to somewhat mimic it, they can get it all wrong.