Taking an Approach

From my understanding, "taking an approach," as descirbed by Harris, is a technique in which the writer channels another mode of thinking, or perhaps even another style of writing altogether, to express his ideas. It is similar to both forwarding and countering in that it involves acknowledging the validity of a previously established idea, and then expanding on that idea. It is different in that it does not so much use this idea to support the current argument, but to offer insight into the argumentative processes of the writer. The act of "taking an approach" makes most sense to me when compared or thought of as an introduction or premise to a piece of writing. During an introduction or prologue, the author can explain the inspirations for his written text - perhaps a particular idea of another intellectual, or the stylistic aspects of another piece of writing - which descirbe the approach he will take in his writing.

I know that definition is a little bit hairy, but it's even more difficult (in my opinion) to find examples of a writer taking an approach (at least online). It seems the author almost has to blatantly say, for example: "I'm writing this piece from a Freudian point of view, but updating some of his theories to coincide with today's culture" to know for sure that he is taking an approach. Otherwise, how can a reader know for sure what has inspired the writer's thinking? With that being said, I was able to understand Andrew Sullivan's basic approach by reading about his background. I know that he writes from the perspective of a self-proclaimed "libertarian conservative," gay, Catholic, British man. Obviously, all of these traits affect his views and therefore how and what he writes about on his blog.