Forwarding

         In Chapter two of rewriting, Harris focuses on forwarding as a concept of taking ideas or words of an author and then putting them into your own words and so called "forward" them by expanding on these words and ideas and making them your own. He then goes on to talk about academic writing as a conversation and by taking eavesdropping on a conversation, you pick up and make of it your own and the conversation will continue after you have gone. This can be lent to writing, because you take what you want from other authors, make of it your own and the writing will always go on after you because it is never finished. Writing is an unopened conversation.

     With this being said, when reading Torgovnicks piece on critical writing, she almost rewrites her on version of how critical writing should and is done. She talk about her piece on Malinowski, and how it was not the usual MLA format and how many may walk out and not approve of his work because of her format. She changed her previous format of the typical mundane work when she received peer review. She found that her audience welcomed it with open arms and had questions to ask. This proved that an audience is not looking for a specific format, just for the information to be represented in a way they can understand. At least, this is what I got from reading this article, there may be different interpretations.

      While reading I could almost feel Torgovnick feeling elated by this discovery and with me as well. I can see how this could work, I myself, think MLA is just another way for professors, teachers and the like to have their students conform. If a student does not follow this format, their academic work is tossed aside and not even read because it does not follow this specific guideline. It would not matter if their information, ideas etc. were enlightening, creative, revolutionary, it would be denied reading until it was formatted with MLA. This is almost sad, that a piece of work is deemed "wrong" without even being read. But Torgovnick's discovery found that if people just listen, instead of defining work by a particular format it is listed in then they find it is just an enlightening and just as "good" as anything else formatted.

     This is something I have fumbled across more then once in my career. As a future English teacher, I see the use of MLA the importance of it all, and the way it is implemented into education but I do not deem academic work as "wrong" just because it is not in this format. For one, this happened when I was just learning how to use MLA in the 8th grade. My teacher gave me a 0 and refused to read my paper until I fixed the formatting.
       Also as a teacher I would never want to give a student a zero. Students have enough trouble with self esteem and I would not want to contribute to that. Bullying is a prevalent problem in our society with school age children. If students are bullying other students, I as a teacher would not want to be seen as a bully either. My cousin just recently attempted to commit suicide because of being bullied at school. Instead of tearing a student down by giving them zeros, I would first want to make sure my students knew what they were doing before handing in work. This would give them the confidence to have pride in their work and pride within themselves. Students should feel positive and happy in school, it is a place for growing and learning. I would not want to contribute to the negative side of schools today, and I hope to change that once I became a teacher.

Then, when reading Hooks piece “memories of my girlhood” I saw this exact idea represented as well. Hook showed her emotions and thoughts in a more poetic and lyrical piece not a strict format. I was really moved by this piece I felt myself being put in her shoes. Although I am not African American, being a girl, I also have the same memories as playing with dolls with my sisters when I was younger. This small, but essential detail may seem of unimportance but in reality it just reminds me that no matter the color of our skin, that we are all just alike and all crave the same innocent things.

         I think being a young girl is hard enough with all the standards and expectations to live up to in society. When I was a young girl I had a toy similar to Hook's doll, which was my kitchen set. This set had a stove, oven, and food to cook. My sisters and I often played with this and one day I asked my brother to play. He responded with "No thats a girl toy". Also, I always say my mom cooking as a child, not my father. Even today, whenever my father is attempting to cook something I say "Dad get out of here let me do it". Society has a tendency to set strict gender rolls and often they are implemented into our daily lives and brains when we are children through toys. Just like Hook was taught that women are supposed to get married and be mothers with her barbie and baby doll is the same way I was taught through my kitchen set then women cook and work in the house.