For most students and by extension, writers, we spend about the first 18-22 years of our lives developing our sense of literary identity. From learning the five-paragraph essay format to writing well over ten pages, much of our time spent in school goes towards mastery of basic writing principles and finding our written “voice”. Nonetheless, the objective throughout all this time is static: ensure the content demonstrates that learning has occurred. This usually means doing a fair bit of research and regurgitating the information with a bit of our identities infused into the work. However, most students are not accustomed to writing with authority or even adapting their identities to certain audiences. Yet, they’re expected to command authority and cater to every possible audience upon graduation which can lead to some tricky situations later.
An article authored by Elizabeth Wardle illustrates the pitfalls and consequences of what could happen if an individual were unable to adapt their writing to a predetermined standard. She tells the story of a graduate named Alan who found employment in the humanities department of his school as an IT specialist. Alan, not feeling a sense of belonging, wrote with poor grammar and refused to adapt to his colleagues who were all accustomed to a certain degree of polish in written communication. As a result, Alan was at constant odds with the rest of the department until he ultimately quit and found work elsewhere. The issues stem from Alan’s inability to adapt his written identity as well as command authority or trust from his coworkers. Unfortunately, this could be a potential failure of his schooling. Had he been better versed with formal literary practices while in school, a situation like this may have never occurred.
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