Authority in Identity.

Authority in identity is a concept that feels almost intuitive. We are what we do, therefore we find our confidence in the type of authority we work with.

Between Elizabeth Wardle’s “Identity, authority, and learning to write in new workplaces” and Ann Penrose and Cheryl Geiser’s “Reading and Writing without Authority” there’s ample proof that authority and identity absolutely like to play off each other.

Penrose and Geiser hold up opposing sides of the spectrum. To be honest, their finding that Janet “rarely referred to either the authors or the articles.” is absolutely baffling to me. Roger, with his “74 references to authors” on the other hand, felt like reading simple common sense. It’s natural to name authors and acknowledge the human component of papers as applicable.

Of course, I think this because I can do it easily. I have practice-I’m a psychology student who writes densely cited papers. Making authors talk to each other has become second nature.

I was like Wardle’s Alan though, when I started. Aware I could write, I went into my papers with a sense of superiority I didn’t yet merit. It never got to a point where I believed myself god, thankfully, and I was humbled quite quickly. “Not as resistance but as ignorance….without authority” Wardle explains of Alan, and I cringe thinking of how I tried just as hard and failed to appear knowledgeable and authoritative to my classmates.

Authority from Identity

My authority now comes from my standing, just as Roger’s does. Secure in the ability to speak and be heard, I have no issue pointing at authors and following their conversation, looking for weak points. If I’m wrong, I can own it with little affected. Roger, as a doctoral student, likely had a similar sense of security with his work.

Poor Janet, painfully aware of how little she knew, lacked that all important ability. And Alan just didn’t see a point in getting to where that authority would come naturally. The identities they took for themselves – a freshman student and a newcomer-cum-tech-god respectively, meant that they would need to work much harder for any assumed authority or confidence.

Time lends authority because it lends credibility. Credibility ties with confidence to create a sense of stability in any field. I identify as a psychology student who’s been in school for far too long, and my identity mixed with the years I’ve done this give me authority to guide others.

And, as a last aside – out of the people here, I write like Roger. Not always, but that’s the default setting for most of my psychology papers. It took me years to learn to do properly, though.

For other conversations, see my article on Identifying Discourse communities.

For more general information, see the class webpage.