Authority and Identity, what a pair. The term ethos might sound just as familiar, as it is one of the three main persuasion techniques while writing including pathos and logos. A lot of the time while I’m writing for class logos is what I’m the most familiar with as it is essentially credibility based, but ethos shows that you know things based on your own experience. I’m a lot like Janet in this way– but who is that? Well, Ann Penrose and Cheryl Geisler (1994) in their text titled “Reading and Writing Without Authority”, talk about her, and made her up at the same time.
Janet is a ‘do it by the book’ kind of girl. Of course, freshly in college, she’s new to the whole thing so she’s trying to tread carefully through this course of her life. She’s very hesitant in her writing as she seems to always cite and define instead of going right for it. Which I always assumed was correct as well. Penrose and Geisler use Janet as an example to compare her to someone who is a complete opposite–Roger. While Janet believes that the answers to the universe are in a book only, and will not step in when there is a call for authority, we have Roger who sees life just a tad differently.
Roger is the other character Penrose and Geisler came up with to contrast Janet. He’s the kind of guy who knows exactly what he wants at all times and is not afraid to say something. In his writing he shows this, as instead of beating around the bush, such as Janet did, he goes right in. Think of it as a murder in the first few seconds of a movie or show compared to an intro-monologue. He views articles as opinionated questions he needs to critique and respond to–and that is where he is a little behind. Unfortunately for Rodger, schools no longer, depending on the assignment, really allow for opinions in works. Which absolutely sucks because I would so much rather be Rodger than Janet, and in some ways I am, but I’ve grown so used to citing sources that I am always now looking right to the book.
Then we have Alan. See here is the thing: everyone knows an Alan. I’m going to start there because oh man do I know someone like him, but I won’t get into that. Sorry, who is Alan? Well, he’s not humble, I’ll tell you that much. We’ve all had phases where we all claimed we were the best and that we knew everything about, well, everything. If someone didn’t then they are either lying or just unaware of it–kind of like Alan. Elizabeth Wardle (2004) in her work “Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Work-places.”, creates a character as well. Alan somehow takes both Janet and Rodgers traits, scrambles them together, picks out some pieces and puts them in himself.
In Alan’s case, he seems to take authority to the next level while also trying to include some credibility. Except, it doesn’t exactly work in his favor. When someone thinks they hold the world in their hands they seem to forget that the people on it will still be able to see everything they do–every little mistake they make. The people won’t outwardly say anything to them, of course, but it will spread. It will spread to the point that it’s obvious there is a problem. And the problem? Well, it’s ignorance. Alan is too far in his head to realize that the emails he sends to his co-workers are falling on deaf ears, or that there are grammatical errors in all of them. Also, that basically, they really have no respect for him.
So, how should we see authority? Sure, you can take the safe route–or the nose dive, or the over authoritative route. But how you put your identity into it will always be the most important thing. No one wants to read just facts–even if that’s the rule of the essay. Having opinions makes the piece feel more vulnerable and easier to grasp. Maybe I am Janet, or maybe I’m Rodger, and sadly I could also be Alan. But here is the thing, there is nothing wrong with any of them. It’s important to find what is most comfortable when writing, but just make sure to check over the grammar first.
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