Identity Narrative Assignment: How Writing About Students’ Identities Shapes Their Writerly Voice

by Jainab Tabassum Banu | Xchanges 19.1, Spring 2025

Works Cited

Blitz, Michael, and C. Mark Hurlbert. Letters for the Living: Teaching Writing in a Violent Age. National Council of Teachers of English, 1998.

Case, Andrew D., and Carla D. Hunter. “Counterspaces: A Unit of Analysis for Understanding the Role of Settings in Marginalized Individuals’ Adaptive Responses to Oppression.” American Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 50, no. 1, 2012, pp. 257–70.

Carpenter, William, and Bianca Falbo. “Literacy, Identity, and the ‘Successful’ Student Writer.” Identity Papers: Literacy and Power in Higher Education, edited by Browyn T. Williams. University Press of Colorado, 2006, pp. 92–108. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt4cgp83.9.

CCCC Statement on White Language Supremacy. Conference on College Composition and Communication, June 2021. https://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/white-language-supremacy.

Clark, Irene. “A Genre Approach to Writing Assignments.” Composition Forum, vol. 14, no. 2, 2005. https://compositionforum.com/issue/14.2/clark-genre-writing.php.

Dixon, Travis L. “Media Stereotypes: Content, Effects, and Theory.” Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research, 4th edition. Routledge: Taylor and Francis, 2020, pp. 243-257.

Eodice, Michele, Anne Ellen Geller, and Neal Lerner. “The Power of Personal Connection for Undergraduate Student Writers.” Research in the Teaching of English, vol. 53, no. 4, 2019.

Eldred, J. C., and P. Mortensen. “Reading Literacy Narratives.” College English, vol. 54, no. 5, 1992, pp. 512-539.

Elbow, Peter. “Voice in Writing Again: Embracing Contraries.” College English, vol. 70, no. 2, 2007, pp. 168–88. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25472259.

Findlay, Elisa. “When Writers Aren’t Authors: A Qualitative Study of Unattributed Writers.” College English, vol. 81, no. 5, 2019, pp. 432–56. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26773439.

Gemmell, Rebecca. “Encouraging Student Voice in Academic Writing.” The English Journal, vol. 98, no. 2, 2008, pp. 64–68. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40503385.

“This Ain’t Another Statement, This is a Demand for Black Linguistic Justice.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, July 2020. https://cccc.ncte.org/cccc/demand-for-black-linguistic-justice.

Hughes, Michael, K. Jill Kiecolt, Verna M. Keith, and David H. Demo. “Racial Identity and Well-Being among African Americans.” Social Psychology Quarterly, vol. 78, no. 1, 2015, pp. 25–48. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44075387.

Jacobs, Elliot. “Re (Place) Your Typical Writing Assignment: An Argument for Place-Based Writing.” The English Journal, vol. 100, no. 3, 2011, pp. 49–54. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25790061.

Mack, N. G. “Marginalized Students Need to Write About Their Lives: Meaningful Assignments for Analysis and Affirmation.” Composition Forum, vol. 52, 2023.

Murray, Donald M. “All Writing is Autobiography.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 42, no. 1, 1999, pp. 66-74.

Murray, Donald M. “Finding Your Own Voice: Teaching Composition in an Age of Dissent.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 20, no. 2, 1969, pp. 118–23. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/354178.

Neely, Michelle E., and Ann N. Amicucci. “Knowing Students and Hearing Their Voices in Writing: Reconciling Teachers’ Stated Definitions of Voice with Their Response Practices.” Composition Forum, vol. 43, 2020. https://compositionforum.com/issue/43/voice.php.

Permont, David. “Unpacking Writer Identity: How Beliefs and Practices Inform Writing Instruction.” Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education, vol. 12, no. 1, 2023. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/wte.

Rank, Allison, and Heather Pool. “Writing Better Writing Assignments.” PS: Political Science and Politics, vol. 47, no. 3, 2014, pp. 675–81. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43284617.

Ruggieri, Colleen A. “The Value of Voice: Promoting Peace through Teaching and Writing.” The English Journal, vol. 89, no. 5, 2000, pp. 47–54. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/822295.

Regidor, Maria P. “I am a Bad Writer: Latina College Students’ Traumatic Literacy Experiences.” College English, vol. 86, no. 1, 2023.

Soliday, M. “Translating Self and Difference Through Literacy Narratives.” College English, vol. 56, no. 5, 1994, pp. 511-526.

Swain, Sherry Seale, Richard L. Graves, and David T. Morse. “The Emerging Shape of Voice.” The English Journal, vol. 104, no. 5, 2015, pp. 30–36. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24484577.