Donald Murray proclaimed that all writing is autobiographical: coming from our own past and experiences. James Porter in turn that all writing is “Intertextual”. In other words, he claims that all writing consists of bits and pieces borrowed from culturally known texts and writings.
This is a challenge to Murray’s ideas because Porter is almost asserting that writing is, on the surface, not entirely original. But while Porter does make the case that writing is in many ways unoriginal, he does assert that it is in original in the sense of the meaning derived from reading it.
Porter references some lines from the Declaration of Independence as an example that one may utilize previously published phrases and wording. By reordering them one may compose a discourse that allows for a totally different interpretation and meaning to be derived.
Murray felt writing came from each individual writer. Porter feels that writing comes from the “cultural and rhetorical milieu”, or the culture that surrounds the writer.
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