"Approaching" The End

In Harris’s words, taking an approach can be defined as, “working in the mode of another writer.” I feel that in my own words the definition would be using a similar style of a previous author to write a response or work similar to their own. To do this you do not merely look at their work and try to imitate it, one must use the ideas and some methods of an author in their own new passage. Harris reveals three ways of taking an approach; acknowledging influences, turning an approach on itself, and reflexivity.

Many blogs are full of these concepts; Sullivan’s is constantly acknowledging things that his readers have said. In his article, “Why I Blog,” he states that roughly a third of his site is full of reader responses, many of which he shows by posting them on his main blog screen. I have also found articles he has analyzed where he asks question about the topics involved, a main component in turning an approach on itself. After looking through several blogs, I found that taking an approach is one of the more prevalent concepts in almost every one. I think one of the main reasons it is so common is that many blogs are written in response to something read or that has occurred in the world, but also because readers have an open forum to comment on and add to stories.

I found that the New York Times proved to be a little more difficult in finding this concept. It is most common in the op-ed section, where writers are writing in response to a text or to an event. News stories are merely reporting what is happening in the world and there is a set style to almost all of the articles, which could be considered a part of the acknowledging influences aspect. However, the use of this is very limited because today people want a short bit of text that gets all the facts out to them, and is not just a long commentary.