Explore how authors can create authority/ethos within a variety of writing environments. An awareness of authority in writing situations helps as you work to gain membership in the discourse communities, such as that of your major. As a student, you may feel you don’t have authority/ethos in your field, but that shouldn’t stop you from writing as though you do. So this assignment benefits you in two ways: as you are sharpening your skills in assessing other rhetor’s authority, you are also building your own as you compose the text of this assignment.
Compare the decisions made by the authors that accommodate the expectations of their respective audiences. Look at their word choice, their assumptions, their arguments, and their negotiation of authority present in the form of textual signifiers of authority. Your job for this assignment is to draw conclusions about the differences you observe in the texts.
Your ultimate goal is to answer this: How and why do authors make adjustments for different discourse communities, different audiences?
