Abstract of

Literacy & Identity
Pay Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain: The Importance of Identity in Academic Writing

Bronwyn T. Williams

It is often believed that objective, rationalist, academic literacy leaves no room for issues of identity, and that anything remotely personal has, at best, a limited role to play in school. This belief reflects a clear and often widely accepted binary set of definitions: There is personal writing; there is academic writing. The two forms exist on their own, separate and identifiable. Issues of identity belong with personal writing but have no influence on academic writing, which is objective, detached, and analytic.

The author argues that the ease with which readers often construct these categories and boundaries of writing conceals the actual permeability of them. Just as writing that is traditionally considered personal can be rigorous and analytic, academic writing is always enmeshed in issues of identity.

Abstract from Williams, B.T. (2006, May). Pay Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain: The Importance of Identity in Academic Writing. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 49(8), 710–715. doi: 10.1598/JAAL.49.8.7