Adding Voice and Style to Writing

Teaching Voice When I began teaching, I had no idea how to teach voice. I wasn't even sure what it was. I asked several colleagues "How do you teach voice in writing?" I'll summarize their answers: "Voice, you either have it or you don't.” “You can't really teach it." Translation: "I don't know what it is either.”

What is Voice? Each writer has a distinct personality. Each writer has passions, opinions, prejudices, and information. Words should capture the writer's personality. Writers with strong voice capture the reader's attention with individuality, liveliness, and energy. Strong voice makes the writer's purpose clear.

Strong voice helps readers experience the emotions of the writer and understand the writer's ideas. Careful word choice, punctuation, paragraphing, and style help strengthen a writer's voice.

Voice Activity Read the two articles and answer the following: Does the author convey his or her voice? How does the reader know? What can be inferred about the author of this piece? Write your answers in complete sentences, using as much detail as possible.

Two Voices, Two Purposes Two distinct voices with two different purposes: to entertain to inform or persuade

What is Descriptive writing? A writing style that portrays people, places, things, moments, and theories with enough VIVID detail to help the reader create a mental picture of what is being written about.

Principles of descriptive writing There are three characteristics of a purely descriptive essay worthy of remembering. A single, clear dominant impression Objective or subjective Reader visualization

Dominant impression A descriptive essay has one, clear dominant impression. If, for ex. you are describing a snowfall, it is important for you to decide and to let your reader know if it is threatening or beautiful In order to have one dominant impression, the snowfall can’t be both threatening and beautiful.

Dominant impression Con’t. The dominant impression guides the author’s selection of detail and is thereby made clear to the reader in the thesis sentence.

Objective/subjective A descriptive essay can be both objective or subjective. This allows for a wide choice of tone, diction and attitude. For instance, an objective description on one’s dog will mention facts such as height, weight, coloring and so forth.

Objective/subjective con’t. A subjective description of a dog will include the previously mentioned details, but will also stress the author’ feeling toward the dog, as well as its personality and habits.

Reader Visualization The purpose of a purely descriptive essay is to involve the reader enough so he/she can actually visualize the things being described. Therefore, it is important to use specific and concrete details.

Conventions A descriptive essay relies on concrete, sensory detail to communicate its point. Remember, we have five (5) senses, not one or two!