blog 16

Wardle summary: In Wardle’s article Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces, she argues that people do not understand how much identity and authority influence our writing. She talks about a man named Allan, and she goes through and each step, the workplace, identity, outcome, and authority. She states at the end that leaning to write in new communities is very hard, Allan being a good example he was having a hard time learning new skills and identifying with certain groups.

Questions:

3. I think that the reason that Allan did not have success was because he refused to change into what the community wanted him to be. This conflict could have been handled by him trying to change and doing what the community wanted or said.

4. I do think that this is possible to use language unconsciously. Most people are not able to filter everything that comes out of their mouth all the time, so sometimes I think that it could be considered unconscious.

5. I think that I agree more with what Gee is saying in context with Alans situation. The reason that Alan did not want to change his beliefs or ways was because I think that he thought the discourse community was wrong for him, so therefore he did not go along with it.

6.I think that Alan is considered to be a tool. I think this because he was used as data and facts that Wardle collected, not an actual part of the community.

7. An example I can think of would be a teacher getting out of line with a student. Like if a teacher swore at a student or hit them, they may lose there job which would cause them to lose there authority over thestudents.

MM: I think that they stress authority so much because as a write you need authority for people to believe and listen to what you are writing.

Reflection: Overall I really enjoyed reading this article. The main thing that it made me think about is how I need to be more authoritative in my writing so that I can better get my point across.