Reading and Writing Without Authority by Penrose and Geisler
When writing, everyone has their own style. Depending on what education level they have or requirements they need to meet. In the article, two characters are used to present this. Roger and Janet. While the two characters are fake, they are presented as real people with real backgrounds. On Janet’s side, she is presented as a freshman college student. For Roger, he is listed as someone who has already had years of study with philosophy. The way the two write and present their works is visibly different. Janet is more textbook based in her writing. Finding sources that only support her writing and going with the context of it. Similar to following a strict outline. With Roger, he does not hesitate to explore and go beyond the text. He turns it into a challenge, testing what way he can “toy” with the information. The key difference is “obeying” authority. A student is taught, unintentionally, early on to not question authority figures too much. That the ones above know more and are correct, or mostly correct. As a student, their job is to soak in the information. However, the more the student grows the more they are expected to challenge the information and to think more openly. Not just about what they learned, but about their own answers too. Roger focuses on this, stepping outside of the boundary line. In a way, I was very similar to Janet, especially as a freshman. I was given outlines for papers and followed the steps, since it provided me with a structure. As much as structures helped me, they also constrained me a little.
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