The Impacts of Authority on Writing

I found Ann M. Penrose and Cheryl Geisler’s “Reading and Writing Without Authority” fascinating and insightful as a student myself. This article discusses a study that was done on Janet, a college freshman, and Roger, someone completing a doctoral work in philosophy. The two wrote different pieces on the same general topic that were then examined and compared based on authority. Since Janet and Roger had different knowledge and education, they wrote the two pieces differently, and this comes across in reading what they wrote. The authors then go on to explain why this is, and how someone’s authority can influence their writing. Roger, having more knowledge than Janet, wrote with more confidence, and this is clearly expressed in his writing.

This study shows that authority is very impactful in writing and can improve its strength. In the article, one point that is brought up is how, because of Roger’s authority, he was able to set different goals in his writing and approach them in different ways. Because of this, he was able to elaborate on certain ideas more carefully and eventually even detect controversies in what he was discussing as well. Having a lack of authority, as opposed to this, can limit your abilities when writing.

I found these discoveries to be very beneficial as someone who writes because this is valuable information to keep in mind in the future. I strive to be able to write like Roger and use authority to promote confidence, thus enhancing my writing.

Related posts:

Writing with And Without Authority Embracing Authenticity Authority in Writing How Reading and Writing Authoritatively Goes Far Beyond Knowledge