This article was extremely interesting to me, not only did it start off with an amazing comparison about blood transfusions to paternalism, but the text also explains the term paternalism to appoint which I can understand. Unlike with discourse, and discourse communities, paternalism is a much simpler term to identify. I enjoyed reading about Janet and Roger, and how one of them exceeded in their study field, while the other was just beginning their journey in writing. It is important to note that writing with authority focuses on more traditional information while writing without authority allows the writer more freedom and makes the claims negotiable.
So how does writing with authority affect the author of these writings? Since the author was not the central theme of Janets writing, in fact, she did not mention the author once, we can assume that paternalism with authority begins to pay more attention to the authors when it’s beneficial and further in the text. However, Roger took claims by many authors and argued them throughout his text and talked about each one separately and vividly. It is seen throughout this article that Janet had trouble deciding which views to agree with, which aligns with her authoritative writing style.
Janet is a clear example of when a college student enters a college level classroom, they are so used to their high school writing styles and an information-transfer model of education which clearly clashes with current constructivist views of knowledge. These kinds of views shape the learner’s attitudes and self-concept and ability to write at a college level. The writing teachers I have had in the past have focused on a more free way of writing and without authority, however once I entered college, I began to face many writing challenges in the classroom, which may be related to the style of writing that I was taught.
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