One of my goals as an educator is to help students name the world for themselves; however, they must believe that their voice is worth hearing and that they're more than "basic". Students must develop an honest voice and style that mirrors their linguistic communities.
Many writers, myself once included, believe that their writing has to sound "smart." They write long complicated sentences marred with syntactical and grammatical errors that may confuse readers. Some use words from a thesaurus that they don't understand. Instead some of their papers read like a bunch of disjointed sentences with no control. However, if the teacher encouraged them to "braid" or code-mesh their linguistic identities, I am confident that students will write more honestly.
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