Working-class students frequently have problems imagining them- selves as scholars. A rhetorical indication of this conflict is the self-effacing commonplaces that working-class students feel obliged to incorporate into their writing to the effect that theirs is only an opinion or just their personal belief about a topic. Nick Tingle (2004) draws from both composition and psychology scholars to explain how readers associate these self-e acing statements with assumptions that the writer is displaying a weak ego. Tingle relates his vexation with teaching a type of academic identity that demands that working-class students uncritically mimic the linguistic mannerisms and values of a more elite social class, thereby positioning themselves for self-betrayal. Such rhetorical devices belie the larger issues of legitimacy and entitlement for working-class students. It is my contention that working-class students need writing assignments in which they can occupy an authoritative position in relation to their topic.
