Reading the reader through raciolinguistic ideologies: An investigation of the evidence students present in self- placement

Abstract

This article examines a student-centered placement process where matriculating students could write a short, reflective paper to advocate for a new placement. While research describing student writing used in placement processes is often concerned with 1) a student’s ability to accurately articulate their abilities and 2) the perceived validity of a reader evaluating the work, this research applies a raciolinguistic lens (Flores & Rosa, 2015) to understand how students’ perceptions of language appropriateness mediate their self-assessments. Using the raciolinguistic framework to understand types of evidence, this article details how students create and write to a faculty reader during writing produced for placement, paying special attention to the ways in which white supremacist language ideologies are enacted for the benefit of the imagined listening subject/reader.