Referencing and identity, voice and agency: adult learners' transformations within literacy practices

AbstractReferencing skills contribute much to the emergence of voice in students' academic writing. Such skills have a bearing on the identity of learners as writers. In referring certain ideas to certain sources, the writer is able to distinguish voices of others and, in doing so, provide space for the hearing, or establishment, of their individual voice. However, an understanding of the rationale behind referencing and taking on the techniques required for its conventions often proves a complex, intimidating affair for students. Much fear is incited within learners by the convention of referencing, together with the scourge of plagiarism. Thus, rather than learners being ensconced within the academic environment through being able to relate to and engage with other voices, thereby acquiring agency in their writing, issues around referencing can actually serve to alienate them from the academic environment and deter them from their own agency. It may involve much practice and discussion before students see referencing as an asset in their writing. This process entails deconstructions, renegotiations and reconstructions of relationships with ideas and identities. This paper focuses on the relationship of agency and the issue of referencing in the development of an authorial identity for adult learners in the academic institution.Keywords: academic writingagencyidentityreferencingvoice Notes1. Quotations from students' entries are coded indicating gender (f or m), number of student, home language (set: Setswana, xho: Xhosa, afr: Afrikaans, eng: English), race (b: black, c: coloured, w: white) and the journal entry number or RE (reflective essay).