Entry 10: Bless, Address or Press

This week I wanted to look at Maddi's blog Entry #9: The Importance of Knowing the Author. Maddi discusses the importance of knowing the author when reading persuasive writing. According to Tompkins (2012), the use of the three appeals strengthen a persuasive piece by targeting readers' or listeners' logic, emotions, and character. But what happens when an author isn't a reliable source of information or if they try to deceive you with the 3 appeals? 

"When someone is trying to persuade me to do or believe something, I am skeptical until I know who the persuader may be. Is it a family member who I trust with my life? Is it a professional who I trust? Or is it someone who lacks qualifications related to the topic of persuasion? In my opinion, if someone is trying to persuade me to use a new herbal supplement, I would listen to my family friend who is a certified nutritionist before I would listen to an ad on television. " - Maddi Moore

Maddi makes a great point in the quote above. We tend to trust the judgement of those close to us especially family members when trying to make every day choices. It's why you might see an entire extended family driving Subaru Outbacks. This got me thinking about Kucer (2014) and what I've learned about the authority of written discourse within the sociocultural dimension of literacy. We as individuals are a part of many discourse communities so we take on "group identity" within discourse. According to Kucer (2014), the groups behind the discourse give it power. The notion of “I read it” therefore it is truth can be seen across our society. I just keep thinking about supporters of Donald Trump and the COVID shutdown. I think it’s incredibly important to teach our students to read with a critical eye and encourage them to think about the source when engaging with written discourse. False information is everywhere. The winners write the history books and anyone can put something up on the internet. It’s easy to take information as truth when it can be connected to an individual’s background information. I feel like this can be preyed upon by a social group. It’s important to teach students this very point. The “truths” in print depend on which group produced it. The “truths” also depend on the identity of the reader and how they digest it.

I also love that Maddi brought up the credibility of Wikipedia. Anyone can edit Wikipedia at any time and write anything. During my first few years of teaching, I always told students to stay away from Wikipedia as a reliable source of information. I was very Anti-Wikipedia! I remained this way until I was challenged by a student. He pulled up a page about a current event at the time and edited in a completely outlandish statement. After he posted it, he smirked at me and gave me a "watch this" as he hit refresh. The comment had vanished because someone had edited out the misinformation already. I think there's a time and place for Wikipedia in regard to super current and popular topics. It may be a more up-to-date source of information because it's constructed and edited by the "people of the internet."

References

Kucer, S. B.  (2014).  Dimensions of literacy: A conceptual base for teaching reading and writing in school settings (4th ed.).  Mahwah, NJ:  Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.