Blog #1: Creating My Identity Kit

On the Eurostar -- headed under the Channel.

When you walked into the room on Thursday morning, you expected something.

Certainly you expected a professor.
Perhaps you were hoping for someone more hip. More cool. Younger. Perhaps you were expecting someone who sounded more, well, academic.

Maybe you checked out my name on ratemyprofessor.com and you think you know a little bit about me. She's fair. She's flighty. She assigned a lot of homework. She's a tough grader.

More than likely you expected me to conduct the class in a professional manner, to make a syllabus available, to describe course expectations. You expected me to speak grammatically and to communicate clearly.

From this point on, you'll be judging me and the way I teach based on the way I continue to play my part of professor. You'll be figuring out what kind of person I am. 

At Sacre Coeur in Paris.
Did I mention I love to travel?

That's the way life works, or at least the way Goffman describes in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Goffman claims we are all playing roles, consciously or unconsciously presenting an image of ourselves to the rest of the world.

James Paul Gee, a professor in psycholinguistics and discourse analysis, uses a different analogy. He describes what he calls an identity kit "which comes with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act, talk, and often write, so as to take on a particular role that others will recognize" (7).

I will admit. That sounds a little artificial. But think about it. Whether subtly or dramatically, you behave differently in different contexts. You are one way with your friends. Another way with colleagues or roommates. Another way with your mom. And your dad, Your grandmother. Your sister.

It's not fake--it's situational.

Well, sometimes it's fake. The first time I stood up in front of an RWS 100 class, I wasn't quite sure who I needed to be. So I pretended to be who I thought I should be. And over time, I became who I needed to be.

Often these adjustments in the way we present ourselves are necessary in order for us to succeed and achieve our purposes.

Okay, I've rambled enough.
I'm presenting an image of myself for you. In blogs, I'm conversational. Use short sentences, sometimes fragments. I like short paragraphs. I appear random, but I definitely have a point.

If you're analyzing the appearance of this blog, you can see it's technologically weak. Maybe, you think, she not good at technology because she is so old. Or maybe she's busy and doesn't want to take the time to make this blog look better. Or maybe there's something else going on. You decide.

And when you're done trying to figure out what role I'm playing, make your own blog. In this blog, I want you to do the same thing I'm doing. Imagine an audience, this class. What's the best way to present yourself to this class? What role do you want to play? Who do you want this class to see?


Present yourself in such a way as to appeal to this class, using visuals, vocabulary, and ideas that appeal to that audience.

This first blog post is about introducing yourself and your purpose to this audience. Do your best.