Persona: A Matter of Presentation and Discourse Acquisition

Closely related to the concept of discourse community is the concept of persona. In Latin, the word means "mask," a term from the theatrical days in ancient Rome when actors would wear large masks to show which role they had assumed. Scholars of discourse have applied the term to the "role" or "character" a writer assumes when undertaking to write a piece of discourse. It is understood that when you write a piece of text, you are "acting" or "playing a part." The question is, "Do you understand what part you are to play?"

In this class and in publishing your material, creating a persona comes solely through the written discourse. With written discourse (text), it can come from no other place. So, as you write your paper, and as you adhere to the expectations of the academic discourse community, you will also be writing yourself into the role of the academic (the scholar, the expert, etc.). By this point in the semester, you should be well accustomed to writing in the style appropriate to an academic discourse community, so creating the stylistic "mask" of the academic persona should be comfortable for you. Among the many things I will be looking for in this last paper, persona will be among them. Although this falls under the relatively "minor" revision issue of style, it is still hugely important in research contexts. When scholars look to other scholars for information, they want not only information, but the whole scholarly package. Does this expert know how to present him- or herself as a confident expert on the subject? Has the person acquired the discourse? These questions will be answered in the persona.

The Research Ethos in Persona

At all levels of scholarly discourse, the research ethos (see previous blog, "Logos and Real Research") can be found. When writing for the context of real research, the persona will reflect the moods and motivations of the academic discourse community. Of the four personae shown in the link below, nos. 2 and 3 are acceptable for the research context. The following will explain the rationale for their acceptability.

The detached, unemotional persona. The detached persona is considered acceptable because a scholar is, above all else, a puzzle-solver and an assessor of problems. It is the job of the scholar to seek solutions for how to view given issues, how to contextualize one item for consideration in light of other, related items or items not hitherto understood together, and to uncover previously undetected/unconsidered relationships. To meet the demands of the scholar's task, it is understood that the scholar be, above all, cool-headed and able to survey the issue from a removed (albeit limited) vantage point. When adopting the detached persona, the scholar "looks on" while putting the pieces together, though he or she will not connote any personal investment in his or her written text. Rhetorically, this establishes distance from the subject and gives the illusion of objectivity. (As mentioned in the first blog, however, it is now believed that "objectivity" is really a fiction and not actually attainable in human discourse.)

The involved persona. The "it seems to me" of the involved persona allows the scholar to take a somewhat different rhetorical attitude toward his or her subject. Here, the scholar makes explicit acknowledgement of a couple of things: (1) his or her personal involvement in the academic undertaking (shown by the first-person pronoun "me") and (2) the tentative nature of scholarly conclusions (shown by "seems"). Embedded in this persona therefore is the proper humility that must attend logical discourse as a way of speaking predicated upon probable and provisional (i.e., what works for now) knowledge. To state that something "seems" so to you is to admit the possibility of other, valid viewpoints on a subject of controversy. When using this persona, the scholar is saying that he or she has given considerable effort to the issue at hand and is now prepared to offer the following, tentative conclusion. The "me" in the statement assumes the presence of others in the community, all of whom are potentially invested in the issue at hand and who can therefore speak with the proper research community ethos. In this simple phrase "it seems to me" is encoded the entire provisional understanding of scholarly knowledge and the continued need to re-examine issues which concern the community. Unlike the detached persona, this one openly acknowledges the limitations of the individual scholar's perspective, thus hinting that complete objectivity is not available to us.

Brief Lesson on Persona

For examples of how to create persona, please refer to the following link: http://www.tarleton.edu/~popken/2persona.htm