Reading Response No. 17

Summary:
Inher article "Identity, Authority, and Learning to Write in New Workplaces," Wardle attemps to show writers the problems that can arise when someone enters a new enviornment such as a school or workplace. She argues this by giving her readers and example. She tells the story of someone who is put into a discourse community that he does not belong to. He does not feel apart of this community, and Wardle therefore uses this as a way to tell her audience that it takes more than aquiring the skills of a discourse community to belong to it.

Synthesis:
This article can be related to all of the texts we have read about discourse community. It can be related to Gee because both articles use discourse community as a way of defining one's self, or a way to form identity. Wardle also agrees with Swales with the six characteristics of discourse community, but also puts in her own thoughts about identity into the argument. In the Devitt et al. article, the authors define discourse community based on genre analysis, which one could relate back to Wardle because of her argument that a discourse can exist so long as all members have simalar ideas.