An Exploration of Identity and Voice in L2 Academic Writing

The discussion of voice and identity in relation to the skill of writing is a relatively new topic. The value of the concepts of voice and identity in second language writing research and instruction, resulting from the recent interactionist approach to writing has attracted the attention of some famous researchers in the filed and contributed to the publication of valuable studies on voice and identity in writing. Think ing of academic writing as an impersonal, objective, and dry definitely oversimplifies the complex processes of identity negotiation through academic texts. The fact is that every academic text sees (and represents) the world differently as manifested by diverse forms of argument and expression through writing (Hyland, 2002). While the most obvious form of a writer’s identity creation and communication is through the use or absence of the “I” pronoun, the present study seeks to explore in what other ways writer of texts create and represent their identities while writing. In other words, “the points at which writers choose to make themselves visible in their texts through self-reference” (Hyland, 2002, p.352), i.e., their authorial identity is discussed. Issues affecting the concept of identity such as, the networks of social relationships, cultural discourses, and the adopted perspectives and interpretations of discoursal choices representing certain values and beliefs in writing are discussed in the present work. The papers ends with recommendation on how writing teachers can help their students make “themselves” (their identities) “more visible” in their written works.