Playing the Game: Proficient Working-Class Student Writers’ Second Voices

Hannah Ashley West Chester University

Abstract

Four case studies of proficient undergraduate writers from working-class backgrounds were conducted in the context of a course preparing sophomore and junior students to be tutors for first-year basic writers. It was found that, in contrast to much of the theorizing by and about working-class academics that emphasizes loss, a stronger theme in these students’ narratives of growing academic literacy was gaming. Students explained their experiences in ways that suggested a greater degree of agency, an awareness of themselves as writers in a contact zone, and a stance of tricking teachers on the way to producing acceptable texts. These findings suggest that writing in the contact zone of the classroom may require a double-voicedness that need not always be heard by instructors but is nevertheless important to students.

Journal
Research in the Teaching of English
Published
2001-05-01
DOI
10.58680/rte20011730
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Written Communication
  2. Pedagogy

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