James Porter’s article, “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community” serves to question the reader’s understanding of what it takes to create a work of writing and how it is related to the term intertextuality. Intertextuality is the idea that all forms of writing in some way or another are derived from other past works and include traces of familiar ideas that have already been written. The author emphasizes that it is a common misconception that the writer serves to create a change in the audience. He states that it is actually the audience that influences the writer. The author uses the idea of a discourse community to get his point across. He states that the context in which the writer is creating a text shapes the way he or she will write. The author concludes that it is the discourse community to which the writer belongs to that sets certain standards and rules for writing. He also states that “every text admitted into a discourse community changes the constitution of that community” (Porter, pg. 402).
I find the article’s ideas eye-opening because I never thought about the reader shaping how the writer writes and that everyone in a way plagiarizes. Teachers often stress about not plagiarizing, yet this article basically states that it is almost unavoidable to a certain extent and that true originality is hard to come by. I can agree with this idea because I often look up to other writers or what I have learned about writing in the past in order to develop a text. This article relates to past readings because it talks about discourse communities and provides guidance for writing our DCE for this class. Past readings have all involved understanding the writing process and how context plays a key role in its development.
I find the article’s ideas eye-opening because I never thought about the reader shaping how the writer writes and that everyone in a way plagiarizes. Teachers often stress about not plagiarizing, yet this article basically states that it is almost unavoidable to a certain extent and that true originality is hard to come by. I can agree with this idea because I often look up to other writers or what I have learned about writing in the past in order to develop a text. This article relates to past readings because it talks about discourse communities and provides guidance for writing our DCE for this class. Past readings have all involved understanding the writing process and how context plays a key role in its development.