Maya Lipscomb
December 5, 2012
English 1101
Carrie Sippy
Literacy Cycle
Writing is a personal act where you are able to express yourself and through words an identity is given to you. My identity as a writer can go two ways. One identity is as a safe and cautious writer and the other is as a wild and free writer. I am a safe writer when I write formally for example in classes, emails and forum posts. I am a free writer when I write informally in text messages with my friends and family, agendas for the day and chore lists that I do at home. It is safe to say that my identity changes with the environment and genre of writing that is called for. I show how my identity changes in my picture of an armadillo
Being a safe writer has to do with me feeling constricted. My connotation of being a safe writer is taking no risks and staying strictly with what the audience is looking for. In this identity my audience is either one of my teachers or a fellow classmate. In school for example I am a safe writer because I am more than likely given a set of rules or guidelines to go by and this narrows me into a safe zone. I am a college student, who has a lot of writing assignments for my classes, like lab reports for chemistry, papers for English and forum posts for freshman seminar. When I am in the identity of a safe writer I do not include any unnecessary opinions that cause me to go off topic of the assignment I am working on. I illustrated the role of a safe writer as an armadillo in its shell. An armadillo gets in the shell when a uneasiness is sensed around them, but in the shell they are still restricted. This is how I feel with assigned writing.
This identity will also include me at my future job. I plan on being a Speech Pathologist and I know that in my role I will have to send out emails, letters, and memos. I will communicate with people that I plan on helping learn to speak again through emails and letters addressing them as Mrs. Mr. and Miss. It is understood that there are certain things that I can and cannot say because in this role I am a professional and I would like to be taken seriously.
The total opposite of being a safe writer is being a free writer. My connotation of being a free writer is expressing whatever feelings I have and having a wide range of writing that I can do. I take on this identity at home and around people and places I am familiar with. While I’m texting I am a free writer because I do not have to worry about abiding by guidelines and I am able to be myself. I can say “Wha Up?”, “lol” and “Tbh” without wondering how the audience will react and respond to me. When I am texting it is understood that me and my audience are familiar enough to not have a restriction on how our conversations go. At home when I am writing memos and chore lists I may abbreviate before as “B4” and later as “L8er” because I am familiar with this language and know that the audience (me) can understand. On the internet I also take on the identity as a free writer because I communicate on social networks like Facebook and twitter and feel safe enough to say how I feel. As illustrated on my poster, I show a free writer as an armadillo not in its shell. I chose that because when I am a free writer I like to explore a lot of options and roam around with no restrictions to say what I really want to say.
The identities that I take on as I am writing also are affected by what discourse community I am in. As a safe writer I will be in a school community, work community or professional community. As a free writer I will be in a home community or social network community. School, work and professional communities all share the concept that there are restrictions and known guidelines to stay within. Home and Social network communities all share the concepts that my audience is known and I am not restricted to say certain things. The writing that I have gone through has shaped the identities that I take on to this day.
Overall the writing that I do is either safe or free. In my poster I showed the transitions from a free writer to a semi-free writer to an semi-safe writer to a safe writer. My actions on which “identity” I portray does depend on the assignment I am given and environment that I am in. My literacy cycle as a writer does always come full circle.
