Porter Questions

 

Avalon Bednarcik

Dr. Steven Kapela

Questions for Discussion

4. Porter argues the key criterion for writing is ‘acceptability’ within the reader’s community and I assumed a whole different idea about writing before this article. I never how in-depth a reading community could be and how many standards they have. I thought writing would be evaluated for its face value, and how it is used in the context of the paper. The papers I have been assigned to write in the past were usually graded based on the rubric assigned with the paper. Before this article I never knew what a discourse community was and how much of a major part to writing a paper it created. They weren’t graded through approved channels called forums. These forums have a distinct history and rules governing to where each member is obligated to adhere. My writings have never been evaluated in this way, but many professional writing have been. This limits their freedom in the rhetorical context and I never thought of writing in this way before.

5. Porter is right about intertextuality and its effects on originally. This reflects in his own writing because there’s only so many ways to say the same idea, so I believe many texts do bounce off of other texts ideas. This doesn’t mean it takes the originality of any writers’ text though. He says even the Declaration of Independence, is similar to the English bill of rights, but they are both original documents in my viewpoint. They were autonomous documents because all the authors carefully decided what to put into each document. I feel his writings can go either way on the spectrum, but do reflect an autonomous individual.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

2. Based on Porters argument in this article, my rewritten definition for plagiarism would state, you cannot take someone else’s writing word for word out of context without citing it, but you can use concepts of other authors. Intertextulism I believe is seen in many writing, but is subconsciously done because you have seen the writings before, but you apply them into you own word and thoughts. Compared to the original definition of plagiarism, they are literally the same. Compared to Porter’s definition I feel they are very different because he has a very strict definition of the word plagiarism.

Meta- Moment

Yes Porter’s study has changed my views of writers and their writings. I realized how difficult it is for them to subject their writings to a certain forum. It limits the writers to certain ideas and to make their writings stand out and be original. I feel it is very difficult for me now to write and adopting Porters ideas would limit my writings even more and make it more difficult for me to get my original ideas out.