Writing · Writing: Essays and Literary Analysis

Critical Literacy in Your Own Writing: Positionality and Responsibility

2.5About 65 minutes

Learning goals

I can explain how my beliefs, values and experiences are revealed in my writing, including in my choice of topic, lens, evidence and words.
I can write a brief, specific positionality or writer's note that makes my perspective accountable.
I can use accurate, respectful language when writing about people and communities, including people with mental illness and First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
I can read my own draft against itself to find blind spots and address them.

Words to know

critical literacy
The ability to question how texts (including your own) represent people and ideas, whose interests they serve, and whose voices are missing.

positionality
Your position in relation to a topic (background, experiences, communities), and how it shapes what you notice and value.

reflexivity
The habit of examining your own assumptions while you think and write.

blind spot
Something a writer cannot easily see because of their own position or assumptions.

person-first language
Language that names the person before a condition, such as a person living with depression; some communities prefer identity-first language, so follow the community's own usage.

writer's note
A short reflection, often submitted with an essay, explaining the writer's choices, perspective and the limits of the work.

No essay is written from nowhere

In Grade 11 you learned that your perspective enters an essay through its topic, evidence, words, framing and conclusion, that a stated, defended position differs from hidden bias, and that missing voices should be included respectfully. Expectation 2.5 asks Grade 12 students to explain how their own beliefs, values and experiences are revealed in their writing: not to erase themselves, but to make their perspective visible and accountable.

This matters more as essays grow more ambitious. When you choose a critical lens, respond to critics, or write about communities other than your own, your position shapes what you can see. Good academic writers do not pretend to be neutral; they show their reasoning so readers can judge it.

Readers see the essay above the surface. What sits below (beliefs, values, experiences) shapes every visible choice. Critical literacy means bringing it into view.

Grade 12 adds lens to the checkpoints you used in Grade 11. Choosing a feminist or Marxist lens is itself a sign of what you value and notice.

Reading your draft against itself

Try these questions on any essay before you submit it:

Why this topic? Did a personal experience draw you to it? That can be a strength, if it does not replace evidence.
Why this lens? Did you choose the one that confirms what you already believed?
What did you leave out? List the strongest piece of evidence against your thesis. Is it in the essay?
What do your words assume? Words such as normal, primitive, crazy, exotic, civilized, third world carry judgements. Some are simply inaccurate.
Who would disagree, and why? Imagine a reader from a different community, generation or experience.

Writing about people responsibly

Mental illness: describe experiences accurately. Write the narrator's breakdown or her loss of touch with reality, not she goes crazy; avoid diagnosing a fictional character with a modern clinical label unless you can support it. Remember that "The Yellow Wallpaper" presents a nineteenth-century view of illness; your essay can analyse that view without adopting it.
First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples: use the names nations and communities use for themselves; write in the present tense about living peoples and cultures; avoid possessive phrases such as our Indigenous peoples; do not generalize from one nation to all.
Any group: prefer the terms the group itself uses; when unsure, check reputable, current guides from that community's organizations.

The writer's note

Many university instructors, and some Grade 12 teachers, ask for a short writer's note or reflection with an essay. A good one is specific (it names an actual choice), honest (it admits a limit) and brief (a paragraph, not a confession).

Perspective is not the same as bias

Having a perspective is unavoidable and often valuable: a student who has cared for an ill family member may notice things in "The Yellow Wallpaper" others miss. Bias is when perspective replaces evidence or hides the other side. The cure is not to remove yourself but to show your reasoning and test it against counter-evidence.

Worked example

Let's write a writer's note

A student has written a feminist reading of "The Yellow Wallpaper" arguing that the ending is both defeat and escape. Write a writer's note that explains how their beliefs, values and experiences are revealed in the essay.

Name a specific influence: I chose a feminist lens partly because I have strong views about women's control over their own health care, and I noticed early that I wanted the narrator to win.
Show where it entered the essay: That wish shaped my first draft, which treated the ending as pure victory and left out her loss of reality.
Show how you tested it: My teacher's comment and a classmate's Marxist reading pushed me to include the strongest counter-evidence: the narrator is still locked in the room, and other women (Jennie and Mary) do the household and childcare work that makes her idleness possible.
Name a word choice you changed: I replaced "she goes crazy" with "her breakdown", because the first phrase mocks an illness the story takes seriously.
Admit a limit: My essay still focuses on gender more than class, and I have not read nineteenth-century medical writing directly, so my historical claims rely on one secondary source.
Full note: I chose a feminist lens partly because I have strong views about women's control over their own health care, and I noticed early that I wanted the narrator to win. That wish shaped my first draft, which treated the ending as pure victory. Feedback pushed me to include the strongest counter-evidence, including the class privilege that makes her enforced idleness possible, and my final thesis now argues that the ending is both defeat and escape. I also replaced "she goes crazy" with more accurate language. My essay still focuses more on gender than on class, and its historical claims rely on one secondary source.

A short, specific, honest note: it names a belief, shows where it entered the essay, shows how the writer tested it, records a language change, and admits a limit.

Hands-on activity

Two-column self-audit

You need: a recent essay or a draft you are working on, a sheet of paper folded in half lengthwise, and a pen.

Left column: list each of the five checkpoints (topic, lens, evidence, words, conclusion). Beside each, write one choice you made.
Right column: for each choice, write the belief, value or experience that may have influenced it. Be specific ("I play hockey, so...", "My grandmother lives in a long-term care home, so...").
Circle any choice where your perspective may have replaced evidence or hidden the other side.
Find the strongest counter-evidence to your thesis and write one sentence that addresses it.
Search your draft for any loaded or inaccurate words about people. Replace them.
Write a five-sentence writer's note.

What to look for: specific connections between life and writing; at least one honest limit; language that is accurate and respectful.

Just for fun

Perspective changes everything, even weather reports. A "mild winter day" means something quite different in Winnipeg than in Victoria, and both forecasts are written with total confidence.

Your turn

What does expectation 2.5 ask you to explain?

Name the five checkpoints where perspective enters an essay.

What is the difference between perspective and bias?

Rewrite respectfully and accurately: By the end, the narrator has gone totally crazy.

Fix this phrase: Canada should listen to our Indigenous peoples.

Name three qualities of a good writer's note.

More practice: warm-up

What is positionality?

What is reflexivity?

Give one loaded word to avoid when writing about cultures.

Is it possible to write from no perspective at all?

What is person-first language? Give an example.

More practice: on your own

A student chose a Marxist lens for every essay this year. What might that reveal, and what risk does it carry?

Explain how a personal experience can be a strength in a literary essay.

Revise this conclusion so it does not overreach from one perspective: Clearly, every reader today would see the narrator as a feminist hero.

Why should you check which terms a community uses for itself?

Write one honest limit sentence for an essay you might write on an Indigenous-authored novel, as a non-Indigenous student.

Challenge

Write a writer's note (5 to 7 sentences) for an essay you have actually written this year.

Argue whether academic essays should include the writer's positionality explicitly, or whether it belongs only in a separate note.

Explain how using an AI tool to draft an essay could affect expectation 2.5, and what a student should do if their teacher allows limited AI use.

Check your understanding

Quiz

Expectation 2.5 asks students to:

Which is a sign of bias rather than perspective?

Which phrase is most accurate and respectful?

Which is the best writer's note sentence?

Which wording about Indigenous peoples is appropriate?

Grade 12 adds which checkpoint to the Grade 11 list of places perspective enters an essay?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: This lesson covers expectation 2.5: explaining how one's own beliefs, values and experiences are revealed in one's writing. At Grade 12 this extends to the choice of critical lens and to writing responsibly about people and communities.

How to help: share your own perspective on a topic your teen is writing about and invite them to notice how it differs from theirs. Ask: What in your life made you care about this question? and What would someone who disagrees say?

Common difficulties: vague self-criticism (I am biased); thinking perspective must be hidden; outdated or loaded words about mental illness or cultures; possessive phrases such as our Indigenous peoples. Note: this lesson touches on mental illness and on how communities are named; the fun box is kept to a light joke about weather. Policies on AI tools vary by school and teacher; students should always follow their teacher's rules.