February 24th Homework

Summary
In her article, Identify, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces, Wardle argues that it is hard for people to understand the importance of aspects like identity and authority in their paper. She gives examples showing how having identity and authority in your paper is very influential and will help it out. A man named Allan becomes the key of her paper when she goes through the process he takes, including the workplace, identity, outcome, and authority. Learning to to write in new communities is tough and Allan was a great example, since he was struggling with his identity in new groups.

3. I think that Allan did not have positive results because he did not want to adapt to the way his community wanted him to. The answer to prevented conflict is simple; he could have just conformed to how his community wanted him to change.
4. I agree with Wardle because I often say things unconsciously and don't think things through before I say them. Most people are similar to me and don't always filter what they say.
5. I agree more with Gee in this matter because your primary Discourse is what shapes you, so if people are tying to get you to adapt to a new community that is opposite of what your used to, you will struggle adapting.  The new Discourse might have values against your own, which will make it hard to become a member.
6. I think that Allan was used as a tool in this article because he was used as facts and data that Wardle collected, rather than an actual part of the community.
7. I remember my baseball coach cussing out one of my teammates for making an error that cost us the game. He realized later that he was wrong for reacting so forcefully and was really apologetic after the incident. This caused players to lose respect for him, which in turn caused him to lose some authority.

AE
I think that when you write with authority, people view you as a credible source and agree with what you write. Having that authority in your discourse community means that the members value what you say, since everyone shares common beliefs. I believe as I wrote more and more, I started becoming more credible and eventually gained that credibility and authority over my readers. I have had many papers where I felt like I had no authority throughout out it, mainly because I could not relate to the prompt. An example of a discourse community I earned authority over would be my high school class. I became part of the national honor society junior year and participated in many community service projects, as well as represented my class at graduation, with the other 15 members. By gaining this leadership skill, i gained authority within my discourse community.

Reflection
I liked this article and found it easy to understand. Although I learned a lot from the past two articles regarding Discourse communities, I thought this one taught me the most and really helped me get a better grasp on the concept of these communities. After reading this article, I think I need to become more authoritative with my writing so that my readers will respect my points better.