Intertext and Writing Ecologies

Porter Summary
In his article "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community", James E. Porter attempts to explain the constraints of intertextuality, and how every discourse is composed of pieces of other writings that help convey it's meaning. He argues that not only do texts refer to other texts, but that they actually contain them. Porter also refers to Thomas Jefferson and his part in writing the Declaration of Independence on pages 89 & 90. Jefferson has been said to have either consciously or unconsciously borrowed writing from his culture. This example ties into Porter's belief that creative writers are creative borrowers. Writers are limited by the discourse community they impose on, they are restricted by the intertextual preferences, but the successful writers work around those restraints in order to effect change.

2nd GRR
I get "help" for my writing in many different ways. I usually start by looking on the internet for probably sources, and depending on the topic I may do different interviews in order to get other people's feedback and opinions. I get advice through my peers and teachers.

QD
2. No, I do not agree with Porter that the great web of texts built on and referring to each other makes writers less important because I believe without having each other's writing to base things off of and add to, no one would have things to go off of and not have some of the answers they would need.
3. He calls the idea of an autonomous writer "romantic" because "the need appeals to our need for intellectual heroes", also might be an anti-rhetorical view that "writers are born, not made; that writing is individual, isolated, and internal; not social but eccentric".
4. The key-criterion is different from the way I assumed because I didn't think that the acceptability in the discourse community was that important, I thought there was one way that everyone followed when evaluating writing. It's different from my own writing being evaluated in the past by not always trying to be accepted into the community.
5. I believe he focuses a lot on what he has to say and referring to himself as having his own opinion and words and not basing his thoughts on other people.
6. Some harm may be caused because maybe writers tend to be isolated but try not to always write for themselves but for other people as well.

MM
Porter's study kind of changed of changed the way I viewed writers because I now see how a lot of writers and a lot of their texts are connected in a way and are creative writers but creative borrowers.

Personal Opinion
I understood a lot of this reading and I enjoyed the parts about Thomas Jefferson and the Decleration. I felt as if I was getting  history lesson and I never knew that Jefferson was known for borrowing some thoughts from his culture. However I think some of the reading was confusing, I didn't understand things about the autonomous writer and some of the discourse community.