James E. Porter’s Idea of Originality in Intertextuality and the Discourse Community

Since I arrived in the United States one of the first concepts that was introduced to me was the concept of plagiarism and the severity of its consequences. Since that moment I see myself focusing much more on paraphrasing and not committing plagiarism than the quality of the ideas that I am writing. However, I have noted that most of my ideas and opinions are probably based on somebody else’s work I might have read before. Therefore, is it not plagiarism? In the article “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community,” James E. Porter challenges the idea of what plagiarism truly is. He states that it is almost impossible to write without committing some sort of plagiarism. Instead, Porter introduces the concept of intertextuality, which he describes as the “idea that all texts contain traces of other texts and that there can be no text that does not draw on some ideas from other texts” (Porter 86). In other words, Porter states that for a text to be original it does not mean that its ideas are required to be completely unique. Instead, Porter suggests that originality relates to how well one interprets the material and what new ideas and opinions the writer can draw keeping in mind the author’s ideas. Although writing one’s thoughts on paper might seem easy, it may often become a challenge for most collage students. In the case of international students that challenge is twice as difficult, especially when you are expected to be “original.” It is commonly taught that in order to become good writers we need to come up with original ideas and opinions. According to English instructors, to be original is to come up with ideas that no one has written before while giving recognition to any author that influences or supports our ideas-so...

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...different ideas and combining them to create a whole new concept is what originality truly is. Porter tries to say that plagiarizing is something hard if not impossible to avoid. In fact, no writer can consider a work as originally his/hers. That is because every writer needs to take into consideration other opinions that people have said and then form their own opinions. Therefore, English instructors should modify their conventional idea of originality and give students the opportunity to exercise their creativity and deeply analyze and interpret what they read. What Porter presents as intertextuality makes us reconsider what plagiarism is and recognize that taking other’s ideas is not necessarily as bad as we have been taught.

Works Cited

Wardle , Elizabeth, and Doug Downs. Writing about Writing. 1st edition. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2011. 747. Print.