Transform the Interchangeability of ‘We’ and ‘I’ for an ‘I Write’ Identity and Authorial Voice

Hongqin Zhao^1, , Xinye Zhang² and Yaqian Lee³

¹The Department of English Language and Literature, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

²The Department of Linguistics, University of California, Davis, California, US

³The Department of Social & Political Sciences, Bath University, Bath, UK

Cite this paper:
Hongqin Zhao, Xinye Zhang and Yaqian Lee. Transform the Interchangeability of ‘We’ and ‘I’ for an ‘I Write’ Identity and Authorial Voice. American Journal of Educational Research. 2024; 12(3):109-117. doi: 10.12691/education-12-3-5

Abstract

This research strategizes first personal pronouns as symbolic writing identities in soliciting author voices through EFL students’ writing. It sets curricular and pedagogical steps to create an ‘I Write’ position through autobiographical projects. It is anticipated a transfer of such writing agency authorized by the singular first-person lexicon to argumentative writing context. A comparative analysis of the autobiographical writing projects and the argumentative essays has calculated the self-position by lexical options between ‘We’ and ‘I’. The result reveals that students interchangeably use plural and singular personal pronouns for writing positions and voices. It shows that such interchangeability appearing as lexical act meanwhile illuminates the writers’ reluctance to claim independent thinking that is necessary for English writing. This suggests writing pedagogy should aim at the issue of such interchangeability between the singular and plural forms of the personal pronouns in order to leverage an ‘I Write’ authorial identity for academic voices.

Keywords:
The first personal pronouns writing identities interchangeability lexical choices authorial voices writing pedagogy

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