Blog Post 11

I. Summery

In Porters article "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community", Porter examines the concept of "intertextulality" while also touching on the ideas of originality and plagiarism. Porter insists that a writer is simply a part of a discourse tradition, or a group of people brought together by a common interest who communicate in a similar fashion. He ends the article saying how the community constrains the writer, but the writer will be effect is he fights against what the community has to say by changing their viewpoints.


II. Conversation

This article in some ways reminds me of the Kantz article. In Kantz's article she argues the importance of finding original thing to write about. In Porters article he argues that originality is hard to come by. So these articles where inversely related in the argument of originality vs. plagiarism.


III. Assigned Exercises 

QDJ

2.) Do you agree with Porter that intertext--the great web of texts built on and refering to each other --makes individual writers less important?  Why or why not?

A: I do not agree with Porter on his stance of intertext. He tries to state that this makes the individual writer less important, which can not be further from the truth. The individual writer is very important in the process of sharing opinions and thoughts on a particular subject.

AEI 

1.  Choose a commercial or advertisement  you've seen recently and search for traces of intertexuality in it.  how many texts can you find represented in it?  How do you find cultural intertext represented in it?

A: Bud Light had a football commercial. This commercial is to reach the discourse community of people that enjoy watching football. They target a large audience because many people in the United States enjoy watching football. The majority of these people that watch the commercial will have a connection of Bud Light and football. There for people who watch football might be more willing to drink Bud Light.

MM

Many of us have been taught to imagine "writers" as people who work more or less alone to get their ideas down in print.  Has Porter's study changed the way you imagine writers and writing?  Would adopting his notion of writers and writing change the way you write?

A: No this article really didn't change my view on the way I imagine writers and writing. People can write about anything they want to write about. It doesn't always have to originally and it doesn't always have to be something that has already been done before.

IV. Personal Reflection

I thought this article was interesting mainly because I had never thought that without even looking up a source, that i could be stealing or using someones original ideas without intentionally doing so.