Frustration-Taking an Approach

There are multiple ways in which a writer can take an approach. The first is a basic, elementary school type writing style in which one simply applies the concepts of another writer. It is in many ways similar to predicting the response of an author to a particular subject. Although this type of writing can be useful, it does not add or expand upon any existing ideas. In many ways, you are just repeating and reaffirming what the other author has already stated. Another strategy of taking and approach is much like forwarding. However, forwarding uses a few phrases or ideas, while taking an approach uses the entire intellectual style or sensibility of the author. Harris outlines three ways of positioning your work around those who have shaped your approach. They are: acknowledging influences, turning an approach on itself, and reflexivity.
It is very difficult to find an example of taking an approach online, because taking an approach often requires the involvement of an entire text or intellectual style. Taking an approach is often used in the writing of novels. I am currently reading an example of this writing style, a novel, Countess Below Stairs, by Eva Ibbotson that is a retelling Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Journalists are rarely given the freedom to take an approach when writing articles. They must be careful to stay unbiased and do not really have enough room in their article to incorporate a complex text or intellectual style. They can also rarely use the concept of reflexivity, because when there is limited space it is difficult to justify ‘cleaning the slate’ when you are already writing and unbiased article. On the other hand, editorials tend to be so opinionated that they would have little use for reflexivity as well. In a lot of ways, a blog or article cannot take an approach by itself. However, the combination of all of the articles or all of the blogs seems to convey an intellectual style of its own. If you were to hand an avid reader of the New York Times a printed version of a blog post, he or she would be able to almost instantly identify it as not The New York Times. One could say that this is because he or she recognizes the intellectual style of the paper and looks for that when he or she reads.