Blog 5: Blogging vs Thesis

In the first chapter of Joseph Harris’ book “Rewriting”, he explains that all writing is Rewriting. What he means by this is that when you write a paper for a class you need a topic. When you research the topic, you are taking the arguments from a reading, forming it in your own words, are putting it on paper. This can be considered Rewriting. When writing a thesis you also need quotes to back up the argument you are making to persuade the reader. Quoting is also a form of Rewriting because you are stating a fact, backing it up with a quote from an author, and then restating the quote in your own words. In Andrew Sullivan’s essay he explains that when you blog, you are writing opinions of your own on a certain subject. The subject could be a video, a news article, or a book. If you are writing on a certain topic, you are Rewriting.

            Harris and Sullivan both believe that a writer restates and questions the subject at hand. Harris writes “The job of an intellectual is to push at and question what has been said before, to rethink and reinterpret the texts he or she is dealing with.” In “Why I Blog”, Sullivan explains that blogging is spontaneous, the second you come up with a new thought on the subject matter, you write and post. Blogging and writing a paper/thesis are the same in the sense that you are putting your opinions on paper, but the goal of both writing styles is different. When you are blogging, you write for your own pleasure, and a person comments on occasion agreeing or disagreeing with you. Harris explains that a thesis/paper is an attempt to persuade someone.