Voice in academic writing Source: IB Companion Guide, 22-24.

Personal voice is: WHAT you talk about HOW you talk about it Word choice specific to you Word order and arrangement Choice and variation of sentences Connection and length of paragraphs Etc. Natural – appropriate to age and experience

“High” Language (false “voice”) Once upon a point in time a small person named Little Red Riding Hood initiated plans for the preparation, delivery and transportation of foodstuffs to her grandmother, a senior citizen residing in a place of residence in a wooded area of indeterminate dimension. (Russell Baker)

False “voice”: Sonnet 73 Student’s spoken topic: I noticed Shakespeare uses a dying fire and falling leaves and fading twilight to suggest his own passing years. Source: Adams, Michael. The Writer’s Mind: Making Writing Make Sense. Student’s writing: A careful reader of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73 will perceive that the poet carefully articulates his fundamental metaphor by manipulating the integration of images concerning death or dying with his own emotional and intellectual state that is projected onto nature and natural phenomenon.

Personal Voice is NOT: Scribbling thoughts “any which way” Filled with inaccurate uses of words Filled with invented rules of grammar, punctuation, or spelling The one you use in your most informal daily conversation One that is ambiguous and hasty

Voice Experiment boats appear glittering sharp thrilled countryside Use the following words to describe a setting. Aim for one to two paragraphs. You may pluralize or change tense, but you may not make any other alterations to the words. boats appear glittering sharp thrilled countryside immodest tapioca brick green snake flooded

Voice experiment Compare with another student: similarities and differences any evidence of your particular way of combining words, making sentences and paragraphs (your style or voice) Now, compare with the original: any evidence of Roy’s particular way of combining words, making sentences and paragraphs (her style or voice)

The God of Small Things But by early June the southwest monsoon breaks and there are three months of wind and water with short spells of sharp, glittering sunshine that thrilled children snatch to play with. The countryside turns an immodest green. Boundaries blur as tapioca fences take root and bloom. Brick walls turn moss green. Pepper vines snake up electric poles. Wild creepers burst through laterite banks and spill across flooded roads. Boats ply in the bazaars. And small fish appear in the puddles that fill the PWD potholes on the highways. (Roy 1)

Discuss What is voice and how do we develop it? Why is it important, when studying and quoting the works of others, to have our own writing voice? Make connections to Hjortshoj’s article.

Text Comparison

Text options Choose one of your summer reading texts and one genre-corresponding text from junior year. Drama The Importance of Being Earnest A Doll’s House Prose: novel and short story The God of Small Things Perfume Kitchen

Question options Compare the use/presentation of and discuss which author was more successful with regards to: characterization (stick to one or two characters for each text) thematic development style, especially in terms of language structure some other point of literary comparison that you get approved before you start writing Brainstorm or quick-respond in a paragraph or two.

MLA formatting review