Authority in Writing

In the piece of writing “Reading and Writing Without Authority”, by authors Ann M. Penrose and Cheryl Geisler are trying to show readers how two individuals write differently based upon their status and authority. The first individual they chose was a male who was finishing his doctoral in philosophy or PhD and a female who was a freshman in college. The two individuals were given the same topic to write about which was paternalism. Penrose and Geisler then began to differentiate the two writers piece by piece. The younger female had a lot of trouble putting her own thoughts into arguments and utilizing the author’s points as facts not as claims which is what the older male writer was able to do. 

Essentially, the takeaway that I have gathered from this piece is that an individual who writes with authority includes their own thoughts and creates questions that they then answer. An individual who does not write with authority will not challenge questions or attempt to place themselves into conversations. Penrose and Geisler make it a point to note that when a writer does not write with authority they don’t stand by a point and therefore do not offer their own voice and ideas to the reader/. They are only writing to give information to the reader rather than showing the reader different viewpoints and perspectives.