post 3

In Porter's Intertextuality and the Discourse Community, he explains that all writing can be in some way linked together.  He discusses the similarities between contemporary writing and writing of the past.  As he continues to explain, writing can also be linked by conventions of the era or an event, or series of events.  Porter believes that there may not be any writing in the world that isn't somehow a part of another writing.  He uses the Declaration of Independence as an example, stating that our dear friend, Thomas Jefferson was not the sole propagator of this document.  Though he was the author of The Declaration of Independence, he did not write every word in it himself, using different pamphlets, documents and events of his time to create a whole product.  Porter goes on to state that if Jefferson was a student in a university of today he may be charged with plagiarism.  In this frame of mind one can say that no writing is original, this does not mean that no writing can be heroic or individual. 
  Mr. James E. Porter also explains that the use of certain words and phrases can bring on entirely different feelings towards the text people are reading.  In his example about the Kent State shootings he describes Kifner's use of the sentence "two of them women" as something that can be taken as a fact, but also "presupposes a certain attitude." He brings up the idea as "what-if?" it were stated that two men were killed, would it have the same impact?