"Taking an Approach

Harris’ idea of taking an approach is moving beyond a stereo typical school writing that often just adds additional to points already argued. One must transform and reshape the ideas, no merely replace them. Taking an approach can be similar to both forwarding and countering but one takes on a style of a writer. It has more to do with how the ideas are presented and how a conclusion is reached. He offers three main methods of position one’s work to take an approach; they are acknowledging influences, turning an approach on itself, and reflexivity. Acknowledging influences can be further broken down into defining concerns, characteristic methods and style. Defining concerns is identifying what problems the author presents and why those were chosen. Characteristic methods is how the author answers the problems and the style is looking at what qualities of the writing appeal to you. It is all about identifying which parts of an authors writing appeal to you, so you can approach your writing in a similar manor. Turning the approach on itself is asking the writer the same questions presented to the reader, using both the subject and method of analysis in your approach. Reflexivity is looking back on one’s own writing to make sure you are on the proper approach.
The Onion always takes a more “out there” approach because their stories are meant for entertainment. The Onion can report on current events, publishing a story partially based on facts. These facts can be twisted and turn in order to be entertaining, but they are still presented in a professional manor. Their approach mimics that of a trustworthy news site and because of this they have been mistakenly cited as one. In this approach the validity of the story is traded for entertainment, and the reader must recognize this. The New York Times can be seen “taking an approach” on political issues. The paper in general takes a liberal approach, which can cause a story to be slightly swayed and in favor of a liberal take on an issue. This makes it difficult for a fair, unbiased political story to be presented.