Janet Vs. Rodger’s Approaches to Authority
In the article titled “Reading and Writing Without Authority,” the authors Ann M. Penrose and Cheryl Geisler conducted a study with two participants named Janet and Rodger and studied their approaches to using authority in their writing. When it came to Rodger’s writing, he used his authority to dig deeper into the issue being discussed and provided real-life situations and examples in order to help support the original topic. He used the evidence he found by stating what he found, justifying it with his beliefs, and tying these beliefs to the original claims/ information found by other sources. The evidence was not just stated without any justification following these claims, which helps the readers understand how the evidence ties into the purpose of the text.
In contrast, Janet’s writing focused on defining all the important information in the text and using evidence from other sources to back up her claims with no justification following. It seemed very dehumanized and the authority in these texts was the material found to give information to readers instead of Janet herself. She did not give her own opinions and insight on the information she found and instead just stated it and allowed those pieces of evidence to take authority in her writing.
The Importance of Authority In Writing
This article has given me a lot of insight into how to take authority in my own writing. It made me realize the importance of justification following a source and how doing just that can make a piece so much stronger. It allows writers to connect with their audiences more since it gives more of a real-life feeling to the readers. Penrose and Geisler agree when they write, “Janet’s only excursion into metadiscourse- discourse about the text itself and its context- is the opening noun, “this paper,” which, by its very depersonalization, locates the authority for its claims in a material artifact rather than its human author, Janet herself.” As you can see, right away Janet goes into her piece by stating her findings and not connecting with the readers as herself first. This dehumanizes her writing and doesn’t give her authority in her writing.
The evidence used should not just be facts that readers have to read and understand on their own. Instead, they should be followed by justification in order to help the readers gather a better understanding as to why the information and evidence were put into the piece to back up their original claim. It all has to tie in together and making sure it does is a skill that all writers should acquire.
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