Notes

1. We recognize that from a poststructuralist perspective Roger’s entry into this community could be described as a move away from, rather than toward, personal authority, as his discourse and thinking are increasingly constrained by the conventions of the community. In these comparisons, however, we have taken the concept of authority at face value, focusing on the right to speak as established by the community’s expressed values—that is, through the attainment of sanctioned knowledge, experience, and credentials. See Collins, Freidson.
2. See Belenky et al., Frey, Gilligan (‘Adolescent”; Different Voice), Gilligan et al., and Tompkins.
3. Both Bartholomae and Bizzell (“Basic Writers”) have argued that attributing basic writers’ “failures” to a simple lack of writing skill ignores the actual lack of authority in these students’ social circumstances and the influence of this outsider position on their ability, and willingness, to adopt the writing strategies of the insider. We believe this analysis applies more generally. Even relatively skilled freshman writers, like Janet, are unlikely to view themselves as authorities in the academic context. College students’ deference to the authority of textbooks and teachers has been described in observational studies (Wall; Haas, “Biology”) and figures prominently in autobiographical accounts of educational experiences (Rose, Rodriguez).
4. The presence or absence of author names is not a straightforward index of dependence on outside authority. For example, the other expert subject in our study mentioned none of the authors by names in his draft, but his protocol transcripts contained significantly more author references than either of the novice subjects. What distinguished experts from novices on this dimension was the role that individual authors played during the writing process. See Chapter 10 of Geisler’s Academic Literacy for a full report of these analyses.
5. Haas (“Biology”) observed similar patterns of generic reference in the freshman year in a longitudinal study tracing a student’s college career.
6. See Chapter 11 of Geisler’s Academic Literacy for more extensive analysis of the use of cases in the work of all four case study subjects.