Move #2: Authorizing

Authorizing is when you invoke the expertise or status of another writer to support your thinking. For example, “Scholes, a professor at Brown University and leading expert in the field of cultural and media studies, in also concerned with the subliminal effect of visual texts…” Authorizing is the traditional way you probably already know to use a source (perhaps you can think of this move as a written ‘shout out’ that gives you additional credibility).
As Harris explains, we authorize by using the concepts and arguments of others to show that we are informed and know what we are talking about. We demonstrate to readers that our argument is not simply a “personal opinion” because others have noted it too. Harris admits this move is a “straightforward and routine form of intellectual housekeeping” (44). Perhaps you’ve been taught that the whole reason to use sources is to “back up” what you write. Sometimes it is. In the social sciences, authorizing is expected, to show that you are “authorized to speak” by knowing the experts and citing a string of names in the parentheses. But authorizing is only one way to use sources. In the humanities, original interpretation is valued more, so if you over-rely on authorizing, readers might wish you had developed your own argument instead of repeating what others have said.