Nonetheless, not everything is as easy as it seems. Writing can be a very difficult task for students, not only because many of them are not prepared to write college level texts, but because different professors have different …show more content…
1091), for example, argues that identity is a self-representation and he implies that it can be either implicit or explicit. He implies this because a writer can decide to use words to identify or characterize himself explicitly, but he or she does not have to. This is due to the fact that while writing, a person is leaving a footprint of his or her identity with or without realizing it. Later on, Hyland expands on his definition of identity by citing Shotter and Gergen. In their view, identity is constructed from the beliefs that writers are exposed to within their own cultures (Hyland, 2002a, p. …show more content…
Their suggestion seeks to avoid confusion in the reader. In general, this switch might not only be confusing for the reader but also for the writer. Students that are not used to writing might find in daunting to change their point of view constantly. This, for example, might be one of the biggest challenges faced by the international students who do not dominate the English language completely. Refuting this idea, researchers have proposed that using personal pronouns in specific parts of a paper might present a great advantage. On one hand, when writing student reports, for example, personal pronouns are used more often to state a goal or explain a procedure and considerably less to express self-benefits or elaborate an argument. On the other hand, when writing research papers personal pronouns are used more to explain a procedure, state a result, or claim, less to elaborate an argument or state a goal, and never to express self-benefits (Hyland, 2002a, p. 1092). This in order to construct an identity when it is appropriate do so and to avoid using personal pronouns when it is not appropriate. Even though this might be challenging and at first confusing, students who feel that they have the skill to switch back and forth from first person point of view to third person point of view should feel