I very much enjoyed reading the article by Porter.  I feel he makes the most relevant and compelling point that we have discussed so far.  His contention that portions or ideas found in nearly every single work are borrowed from other works and ideas in the writer’s experience.  This idea seems especially interesting to me.  Given that I haven’t had much formal training in writing, I feel as though much of the writing that I do is in most part a conglomeration of styles and ideas borrowed from the vast amount of material that I have read.  This is not to say that no original ideas exist in writing, however it seems to me important to acknowledge to what extent outside sources affect how we write.

        While at first it may seem as though Porter is challenging Murray’s assertion, I feel as though it’s not.  This may be very abstract in some sense, but I feel as though their ideas can be effectively combined.  If we look at Murray’s assertion from the sense that we in fact borrow ideas from ourselves and our subconscious when we write, It becomes clear that our writing can, and often is, both autobiographical and borrowed from other sources.