Authenticity 

As a former creative writing minor, I have taken several creative writing courses throughout my university career. My favourite creative writing course was a fiction writing workshop several years ago. I looked forward to all the assignments in this course because we were allowed to choose essentially any topic we wanted to write about, as opposed to writing in response to a specific prompt. This allowed me to write stories that had personal significance to me, which motivated me to challenge my abilities as a writer because I wanted to do those stories justice. During workshop sessions, we were also taught to ask the author questions about their writing to understand what it is they were trying to accomplish, instead of providing feedback that encouraged the author to modify their writing in accordance with our own expectations of the text.  This allowed us to understand how other student authors were situating their writing and who their target audience was and evaluate whether our reactions may have stemmed from potential disconnects between us and their true target audience. This principle allowed us to write our assignments authentically, without having to worry about satisfying the expectations of the specific people in our writing group. More broadly, it also taught me to be true to myself and my intended audience as a writer, and that I do not have to try to satisfy the expectations of everyone who may read my writing if they are not the people I am trying to reach. (Undergraduate student)  

Incorporating authenticity as a principle of writing instruction enables students to engage in writing that is personally meaningful to them and relevant to their unique experiences, histories, values and goals. Authentic activities are grounded in situations relevant to students both within and beyond the classroom, with attention to differing audiences across these contexts.

I am often asked about the term authentic, as some people struggle with the word. In response, I explain that authentic learning experiences often take place outside of the classroom; however, this is not a requirement. Rather, the learning must be applicable to the students’ lives outside of school. When students learn from these authentic experiences, it also reinforces the importance of what they are learning. The sole purpose for learning something new should not be to “do better in school.” Formal education can lose its meaning for many students when it does not allow them to imagine themselves in the worlds they inhabit outside of school. (Davidson & Davidson, 2018, p. 68)   

Inclusive writing instruction invites students to participate in authentic writing practices that are personally meaningful to students and have purpose as real-world activities that address audiences and aim for change. Authentic writing practices are subjectively authentic to students rather than in ways dictated or mandated by others (Behizadeh, 2019). Writing becomes authentic and relevant to students when it connects to their experiences, histories, values, goals, and desires (Alexander, 2020). In other words, perceptions of authenticity differ not only between students and instructors (Kill, 2006), but also among students, and can be shaped by cultural and linguistic background. Authentic writing practices help students situate their coursework as real-world activities shaped by goals, audiences, genres, and modes that are not always easy to navigate (Barnes & Coffee, 2021). Authentic writing is open, complex, and messy—it involves tackling wicked problems; it requires apprenticeship, coaching, collaboration, and reflection; and it poses the real risk of failure (Coppola, 2015). Such writing practices are effortful and can be difficult (Barnes & Coffey, 2021); they engage students in meaningful work with diverse others and complex ideas.  

Authentic writing instruction moves students from learning about real-world genres, to generating them, to interacting with them in consequential ways. It provides students with the opportunity to write in ways that are personally meaningful, applicable outside of the classroom, and aimed at specific audiences. 

Suggested activities

• Design writing assignments in such a way that students can bring their diverse experiences, interests, and goals into the work and support them in developing topics and approaches that matter to them 
• Create writing assignments that encourage students to address real audiences and purposes and facilitate students’ connection to those audiences; where possible, make use of supports for experiential learning and look for ways to develop community-based assignments 
• Teach written genres and writing conventions in a situated, contextualized way—demonstrate the real-world relevance of the conventions that your writing assignments rely on, show how the writing you ask students to do can act in/on the world, encourage students to make use of genres and conventions for their own purposes and goals 
• Encourage students to share their writing with audiences beyond the course such as at student conferences; and student journals (ie. https://cjur.ca/).   
• Create learning communities that support students as they tackle complex writing tasks: opportunities to collaborate, receive coaching or support, share feedback, engage with different perspectives and ideas, and reflect successes and failures increases sense of authenticity in students’ work 

Use cases

Annotated bibliography

• Alexander, J. (2020). Materiality, Queerness, and a Theory of Desire for Writing Studies. College English, 83(1), 7–41.
• Barnes, M. E., & Coffey, H. (2021). Empowerment through rejection: Challenging divisions between traditional, authentic and critical writing pedagogy. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 20(3), 313-327.
• Behizadeh, N. (2019). Aiming for authenticity: Successes and struggles of an attempt to increase authenticity in writing. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62(4), 411-419.
• Coppola, B. P. (2015). Do real work, not homework. In J. García-Martínez & E. Serrano-Torregrosa, (Eds.).Chemistry education: Best practices, opportunities and trends, 203–258.
• Davidson, S. F., & Davidson, R. (2018). Potlatch as pedagogy: Learning through ceremony. Portage & Main Press.  
• Kill, M. (2006). Acknowledging the Rough Edges of Resistance: Negotiation of Identities for First-Year Composition. College Composition & Communication, 58(2), 213–35.