... writers to develop and organize their ideas. Others believe that because of these conventions, there is little space for new ideas which are generated from self-opinion and experience, and the importance of voice is seldom stressed. Hence, there is the question of the possibility of revealing our individual selves within the technical constraints of the academic essay. This essay shall identify the academic conventions and discuss the several ways it can take 'control' of our writing in university. It will look at confronting and subverting these disabling conventions by understanding their purposes and 'being ourselves' while following the rules. University has required many students, foreign or even local, to reconstruct their 'selves' in their writing. Socially sanctioned values and codes of behavior embedded in students who speak other languages (honorifics and various address terms) have an influence on their writing and is incomprehensible to their teachers in university (Matsuda 2001:244). ...

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