Sorry this is late. I had a hard time getting the Internet to stay connected while I was in Harlingen, so I decided to wait until I was home to try to post the blog.
Voice is an aspect of writing that has bothered me over the years. On the one hand, "immature" writers often have a voice that SHOUTS at the reader, and the reader has a hard time overcoming the very personal approach to assignments. On the other hand, if voice is absent, then the reader doesn't get the feeling that the writer was invested in the assignment.
One thing that the TAKS test (Texas high school exit exam) looks for in the writing portion is a sense of the student's voice. If that voice is not present, the student rarely makes above a "2" (out of 4). The presence of voice is the deciding factor in the graders giving a perfect score to an essay. To encourage the students to find their voice, we did a lot of free-writing. I also gave them some very personal topics or topics that looked for personal applications (Who is your hero? What does it take to earn respect? etc.)
Personally, I have found that as I try to write for my classes here at Tech that I am losing my voice as I try to mold myself into an "academic" writer. This was a problem I had when I first went to Baylor. I don't really know how I overcame it 25 years ago, and I am not sure how to overcome it now. I know that many of the things I have written for other classes at the beginning had my voice ringing through, but it was not what some of the professors wanted, so I find myself in limbo. I know that in the readings we have been assigned when there is a strong sense of the writer's voice, I am much more engaged as a reader. The dry, "academic" writings encourage my mind to take a side trip to Aruba while I am reading. So, how do I maintain my personal voice--the kind that engages me as a reader--while conforming to the standards that older, more experienced professors are looking for? That, my friends, is the sixty-four million dollar question!
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Elizabeth Bowen
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About Me
- Elizabeth Bowen
- Lubbock, Texas, United States
- After a wonderful career teaching Junior and Senior English at Snyder High School, I have changed directions. I quit my job, sold my house, left behind family and friends, moved to Lubbock, and started a new chapter in my life. I am pursuing a MA in English Literature with the hopes of also earning a PhD.
1 comment:
I agree with your side trip to Aruba comment while reading. It does get hard to read sometimes. Especially, those dry, dry pieces full of nothing but words to big to want to comprehend and theories that do nothing but make one feel dumb. Those are examples, to me anyway, of how not to write.
When I write, I hear myself saying it in my head. Somehow, it comes out. However, the more academic my piece is, the more I hear my department head reading it as she would write it. It sounds more like her, professional, polished, and every other word that does not fit my regular writing style.
I don't have much advice for you on how to fix it. It gets tricky. Everybody wants something different, which can create real issues, especially when trying to find your voice anyway.
Good luck with it. I know you'll get there. See you in class.
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