Reading Response: Chapter 5 Summary

Writing About Writing (p. 578-580)

Reading Response

Chapter 5- Authority: How Do You Make Yourself Heard as a College Reader?

Summary:

In this chapter pre-view, the main focus is discussing authority within the discourse communities a college student may be submersed in. Chapter 4’s discussion on discourse communities is tied into the new ideas presented. Authority here is “a mix of membership, expertise, and, most important, an ability to be listened to and heard.” Chapter 5 plans to answer question about how a college student can gain respect in and contribute to their new communities. Joseph Harris’s article describes the action of moving between conflicting Discourses. The next article by Josh Keller relates to Harris’s article and together they present the idea of losing authority in one community as you become involved in the next. The next four readings written by Ann M. Penrose and Cheryl Geisler, Christine Pearson Casanave, Lucille McCarthy, and Ken Hyland offer suggestions for settling in in a new community and transitioning between them. Language use in certain communities is closely studied. This chapter attempts to provide college readers with a “writing toolkit” that will help in figuring out how to gain authority and how to fix it if you cannot.