Writer Identity Construction Revisited: Stance, Voice, Self, and Identity in Academic Written Discourse

Abstract

AbstractRecent research on academic discourse has revealed the intersection of writing and writer identity construction. However, some terms that are being used in writer identity study are sometimes not only interchangeably used without making an explicit connection between them but also used in a way that may cause misunderstanding. The paper is intended to tease out four key terms, namely, stance, voice, self, and identity so that the respective role that each plays in academic written discourse can be differentiated on the one hand, and their interrelationship can be clarified on the other. It is hoped that such a panoramic picture can offer some pedagogical implications for academic writing teaching and research and provide some insights into the research on writer identity construction in academic written discourse as well.