Grade by Grade
Writing · Writing: Planning, Drafting, Revising and Publishing

Critical Literacy: How Your Beliefs, Values and Experiences Show in Your Writing

2.5 2.2About 65 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can explain how my beliefs, values and experiences shape my topic, details, words and voice.
  • I can identify loaded words, missing perspectives and assumptions in my own drafts.
  • I can revise to make my values visible and fair rather than hidden.
  • I can use respectful, inclusive language when writing about people and communities.

Words to know

critical literacy
Questioning texts (including your own) to see whose perspective they show, whose is missing and who benefits.
belief
Something a person thinks is true.
value
Something a person thinks is important or worthwhile.
assumption
Something a writer takes for granted without stating or questioning it.
framing
The way a writer presents a topic through word choice and emphasis, which shapes how readers see it.
loaded word
A word with strong connotations that carries a hidden judgment.
inclusive language
Language that respects and does not exclude people because of gender, ability, culture or other identities.

Your writing is not neutral, and that is okay

You might think that if you stick to facts, your writing has no point of view. But every piece of writing involves choices: which topic to pick, which details to include, which to leave out, which word to use, whose voice to quote. Those choices come from somewhere: your beliefs, your values and your experiences.

Critical literacy usually means questioning other people's texts: Whose perspective is this? Who is left out? The Grade 10 curriculum asks you to turn that same lens on your own writing and explain how your beliefs, values and experiences show up in it. The goal is not to erase yourself. The goal is to know what you are doing, be fair, and make deliberate choices.

What shows on the page, and what lies beneath ityour wordson the pageBELIEFS: what I think is trueVALUES: what I think mattersEXPERIENCES: what has happened to meASSUMPTIONS: what I take for granted(often invisible to the writer)above the surfacebelow the surface
Readers see only your words, but the beliefs, values, experiences and assumptions underneath shape every choice you make, often without you noticing.

Where your perspective shows up

  1. Topic choice: you write about what matters to you. A student who works at a grocery store notices food waste; a student who plays hockey notices ice-time costs.
  2. Word choice (connotation): protesters or activists? tax relief or tax cuts? a cozy house or a cramped house?
  3. Selection of details: which facts, examples and quotations you include, and which you leave out.
  4. Whose voices you include: do you quote only one kind of person? Who is affected but never heard?
  5. Assumptions about the reader: Like everyone, I spend summer at the cottage assumes a lot about money and family life. When you celebrate Christmas... assumes the reader's religion.
  6. Framing: what you present as normal and what you present as different.
Same event, three framingsTHE EVENT20 parking spaces become a bike laneA driver writes:"City steals parkingfrom shoppers"A neutral report:"City replaces 20 spaceswith a bike lane"A cyclist writes:"City makes MainStreet safer"The facts are the same. The verbs (steals, replaces, makes safer) reveal each writer's values.
Framing is mostly about word choice and emphasis. Notice how one verb can make readers feel angry, neutral or pleased about the same fact.

Five questions to ask about your own draft

  1. What beliefs or values does this piece reveal? Would I be comfortable stating them openly?
  2. What in my experience led me to this topic or this angle?
  3. Whose perspective is missing? Would including it make my writing more accurate or more convincing?
  4. What am I assuming my reader knows, owns, believes or has experienced?
  5. Do any words carry a judgment I did not intend?

Asking these questions does not mean you must be neutral. An opinion essay should show your values. But your values should be visible and defended, not hidden inside loaded words or unfair assumptions.

Writing respectfully about people and communities

  • Describe people the way they describe themselves when you can (ask, or check the community's own sources). Many people prefer people-first language (a person who uses a wheelchair); some communities prefer identity-first language. Follow their lead.
  • Use gender-neutral words when gender is unknown or irrelevant: firefighter, police officer, chairperson, they.
  • When writing about First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples, use the specific nation or community name when you know it (for example, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Cree), capitalize Indigenous, use Inuit (never the outdated term some older texts use), write about communities as living today (present tense), and avoid possessives such as our Indigenous peoples. Gregory Younging's guide Elements of Indigenous Style (2018) is a well-known resource on this.
  • Avoid stereotypes and avoid describing any group as one single opinion or experience.
Worked example

Let's examine the perspective in a draft

A student writes this opening for an essay about a proposed new housing development: The beautiful old field behind our subdivision is about to be destroyed by greedy developers who want to cram in hundreds of ugly townhouses. Use the five questions.

  1. Beliefs and values revealed: the writer values green space and the look of their neighbourhood, and believes developers act only from greed.
  2. Experience: the writer lives next to the field and probably uses it. That is a real, valid reason to care, and it is worth saying openly.
  3. Missing perspectives: families who need affordable housing; people on waiting lists; town planners; the people who might live in those townhouses.
  4. Assumptions: that readers already live in the subdivision and share the writer's view; that new neighbours are a loss.
  5. Loaded words: destroyed, greedy, cram, ugly: these are judgments presented as facts.
  6. Revision that keeps the opinion but makes it fair and visible: As someone who has walked my dog in the field behind our subdivision for ten years, I worry about losing one of our town's last green spaces. The proposed townhouses could help families who need housing, but I believe the town should require the developer to preserve part of the field as a public park.

The writer's values (green space, community) are now stated openly and connected to experience; another perspective (families needing housing) is acknowledged; loaded words are replaced; and the argument is more convincing because it is fair.

Hands-on activity

Perspective audit of your own writing

You need: a piece of your own writing from this year (any subject), a highlighter, and a family member or friend whose experience differs from yours in some way (age, job, where they grew up).

  1. Highlight every word in your piece that carries a judgment (positive or negative).
  2. Write one sentence for each: This word shows that I believe/value...
  3. List one perspective that is missing from your piece.
  4. Ask your family member or friend to read it and answer: What does this writer seem to take for granted?
  5. Write a short reflection (4 to 5 sentences): How do my beliefs, values and experiences show in this piece? What would I change, and what would I keep on purpose?

What to look for: specific words named (not just it's biased), at least one honest assumption noticed, and a reflection that explains choices rather than just apologizing for having an opinion.

Just for fun

A student once promised that their essay was completely objective. Its title: Why My Favourite Hockey Team Is Obviously, Scientifically, Undeniably the Best.

Your turn

1

Name three ways a writer's perspective can show up in their writing.

2

Which words reveal the writer's attitude? The so-called experts released yet another confusing report.

3

What assumption does this sentence make? Everyone knows the feeling of opening presents on Christmas morning.

4

Rewrite with gender-neutral language: Each student should bring his textbook. Ask the chairman for help.

5

Why might a writer keep their values visible in an opinion essay?

6

Whose perspective might be missing from an essay about raising the price of transit passes, written only from a city budget point of view?

More practice: warm-up

1

What is the difference between a belief and a value?

2

What does critical literacy ask about a text?

3

Is it possible for writing to be completely free of the writer's choices?

4

Which word is more neutral: mob or crowd?

5

Should you capitalize Indigenous?

More practice: on your own

1

Rewrite neutrally for a news report: Hordes of rowdy teens invaded the mall on Saturday.

2

A student's essay about summer jobs says Just ask your parents to drive you to work. Explain the assumption and revise.

3

Explain how a student's experience as a newcomer to Canada might shape an essay about winter, in a positive way.

4

Find and fix the problem: Inuit are a people who used to live in igloos.

5

Write a sentence of reflection explaining how your values show up in an essay arguing for a later school start.

Challenge

1

Write two 2-sentence descriptions of the same school dance, one by a student who loved it and one by a student who felt left out. Then explain which words create each perspective.

2

Explain the difference between bias and perspective, and argue whether a writer can have a perspective without being unfairly biased.

3

Write a short (5 to 6 sentence) reflection on a piece of your own writing, explaining how your beliefs, values and experiences are revealed in it.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which word choice reveals the strongest negative judgment?

2.

What assumption does Like every family, we head to the cottage each July make?

3.

Which sentence uses gender-neutral language?

4.

The goal of examining your own perspective is to:

5.

Which is the most respectful way to refer to First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities?

6.

A value is:

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Expectation 2.5 asks students to explain how their own beliefs, values and experiences are revealed in their writing. This is critical literacy turned inward. It also supports 2.2 (voice): a distinctive voice includes honest, visible values.

How to help: read something your teen wrote and ask What does this tell me about what you care about? Talk about a news story and compare how two outlets describe it. Model respectful language at home, and talk openly when you are unsure of the right term.

Common difficulties: thinking that "having a perspective" is wrong; loaded words used without noticing; assuming every reader shares the writer's family, religion or income; writing about communities in the past tense or as stereotypes.