Eng 319 blog

Paper 2 Final Draft

Katie March

English 319

Dr. Sarah Allen

Word Count:

Too Much Self

It is obvious by the stress writers, professors, and readers put on the subject of voice that it is very important to the creation of interesting, attention-grabbing writing. Although everyone agrees that voice is essential, the concept of voice can often be confusing and indefinable. It is difficult to decide what voice is, where voice is learned, and what constitutes a good voice. Many writers have weighed in on their opinion of voice, Peter Elbow, for example, believes that voice is essential to good writing and that it should be the soul, or self, of the writer without the influence of society and teachers. In this sense, I completely disagree with Elbow; voice is simply the style a writer uses to construct their writing, not their soul being translated onto the paper. Writers can, and should, have many different voices depending on their content. Voice is what makes writing interesting, the word choice, syntax, and sentence structure a writer chooses to use is what grabs the reader’s attention and holds it.

 Writer’s voices vary based upon their field of study, their personality, and the way they were taught to write. Style not only varies between writers, but also between the different works of an individual author. A well-rounded, adept writer should be able to change their writing to appeal to their audience. In the following section, I will imitate a section of Harry G. Frankfurt’s book On Truth. I will imitate the same piece twice, using two completely different voices, proving that the same writer can use multiple voices.

Imitation #1

            Spinoza’s believes that, a person has an intimate attachment to the objects that are believed to be the cause of their contentment without causing the loss or compromise of their fundamental nature. Frankfurt agrees with Spinoza’s assessment, he adheres to these ideals believing that people love the objects which help them find their sense of self. According to Spinoza, a person therefore will attempt to protect and maintain these objects upon which they bestow their love to further their happiness. 

Imitation #2

            People love what makes them happy (duh). We’ll do anything to keep being happy, so we watch over these people, things, or even thoughts and keep them safe. We know which things we love because they make us who we are inside and make us special. We also try to keep these things near us so they can make us happy all the time. The guy who thought of these ideas, Spinoza, seems to be pretty smart, Frankfurt thinks so too.

            The two imitations above are completely different; one has a conversational tone, the other an academic tone. Both paragraphs have the same content, but appeal to completely different audiences. The two voices I used both have a place in the writing world. Personally, I use completely different styles of writing in different settings. When I write an e-mail, letter, or even a text message I use a conversational tone. I joke around with my audience, use sarcasm, and never use proper grammar. I usually only use a conversational writing style when writing something personal because I try to act very professional in both a business and academic setting. When I write an essay, memo, professional e-mail or letter, I use an academic and professional tone. In these types of writing I always check my spelling and focus on my sentence construction to try and avoid run-on sentences and comma splices. There are exceptions to each of these categories; for example, in this class I try to focus more on creativity and less on the impeccable use of the English language to fit in with the styles the rest of my classmates use when writing their essays and presentations.

I often vary my writing style and voice to improve my chances of obtaining a goal. Similarly to the imitation exercises above, voice can change even if the content does not. When I try to obtain a goal, like when I ask for something such as money, I vary my voice to improve my success. When I ask my dad for money I usually give him a sad story about why I need the money, make excuses, and say please a lot, without forgetting the sad, starving college kid eyes. When asking for a grant this summer at my job, I laid out the points for why I deserved the money, the plans I had for the money, and of course I tried to look professional and instead of saying please, I thanked the board for their consideration. In these two instances the content is the same, but the style and the way I deliver my material changed. The same is true in writing, my voice changes drastically between everything I write based on my audience, personality, and objective.

            Based on the previous examples it is easy to see that good voice varies. Contrary to what many of the students in this class believe, to have a good voice does not always mean loud, fast-paced, and humorous, it often can simply mean persuasive, subtle, and grammatically correct. A writer does not need to write in all CAPS, use the bold and underline function, or uh, like write in a totally conversational tone (or use way too many parenthetical statements). These tactics can make papers look unintelligent and make it difficult to interpret what the paper is really about. Often times, simply proofreading a paper and having good word choice can be great voice and can be more successful in persuading an audience. Although voice is affected by your personality, your personality does not have to be riddled on the page to have good voice. Humor, sarcasm, and tone can all make a paper better, but to go overboard can often lead to a jumbled, indecipherable paper.

            Although many writers have a preferred writing style and genre, all writers have to explore different voices and different material. Whether by choice or by force, most writers have experience using the written language for a number of different purposes including grocery lists, diaries, essays, or their gen-ed biology homework. Although some bland and mundane, every writer and person uses a different style to complete these tasks. Voice can change any written word to match the personal style of the writer regardless of the content. Your voice is not the content you are writing, all writers would benefit from exploring different genres and types of writing. Voice and content can often affect one another; a writer’s choice of words can make the writers opinions obvious regardless of the topic. Similarly to a good debater, good writers should be able to write on any topic regardless of their opinions and biases. Content and voice are two separate entities; a great writer can write on any subject using any style.

            Peter Elbow believes that the voice is the writers “self” and should be the deepest core of the writer without the influence of society and teachers, but he is wrong. Writers should not be constricted to those strict of limitations, through imitation, teachers, and a sense a self, writers should learn to write in a variety of styles on a variety of topics. In writing, a person should be able to express anything they choose in any manner they wish. Whether for pragmatic reasons, such as getting a better grade on a paper, or to creatively explore how someone else would think about or write about a topic, it is advantageous for a writer to have the ability to leave their soul out of their work and simply use a good voice to write an interesting paper.