Reader Response Vs Authorial Intent

Reader Response is when the meaning is determined by the reader or a community of readers. This also means that it is the reader who defines any meaning, because every reader will get something different from the text. This is when the reader asks, "What does this mean to me?" This can have negative and positive effects. If the reader was to take this approach with an objective law, then the reader will soon suffer negative consequences. If the reader was to take this approach with a suggestive song and ignore the innuendos, then the reader (depending on the individual's morals and values) would enjoy listening to the song. This of course, only works if the reader enjoyed music, in the first place.  

Authorial Intent is when the author controls the meaning of the text, and the meaning is sought out by questioning what the author might have intended to communicate. The author leaves signs to convey his meaning. These include conventions of written language, grammar, syntax, word meanings, etc. Such as any government document that one receives, but is told not to reply to. These letters are a method of communication.

This is the main difference between the Reader Response and Authorial Intent: one is taking a personal bias to interpret meaning and the other is a method of communication. Authorial Intent, takes into consideration that the author is communicating with purpose; be it: information, entertainment, persuasion, argumentation, exploration, evaluation, documentation, instruction, application, and negotiation. The reader is obligated to search for the intended purpose, whereas reader response gives the author no purpose to exist, because the reader determines meaning.

Authorial Intent could be defined as the method in which the author is using written language to communicate. If communication is not the purpose of a paper, then there is no need for an author.

All three of these writers are talking about writing with the intent to communicate, yet there are those who believe that the author has no bearing on what he writes. These writers would definitely disagree.

"Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow." -Lawrence Clark Powell

"When I say or write something, there are actually a whole lot of different things I am communicating. The propositional content (i.e., the verbal information I'm trying to convey) is only one part of it. Another part is stuff about me, the communicator. Everyone knows this. –David Foster Wallace

"A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood." - Leo Rosten