1. FINDING AND USING OUR VOICES: A LESSON ABOUT INTEGRATING VOICE WITHIN OUR WRITING COMPILED BY KATHERINE PETERSON

2. LEARNING TARGETS  2.1.1 APPLIES UNDERSTANDING OF MULTIPLE AND VARIED AUDIENCES TO WRITE EFFECTIVELY  3.2.1 APPLIES UNDERSTANDING THAT DIFFERENT AUDIENCES AND PURPOSES AFFECT WRITER’S VOICE.  3.2.2 ANALYZES AND SELECTS LANGUAGE APPROPRIATE FOR SPECIFIC AUDIENCES AND PURPOSES

3. DEFINITON OF VOICE  IT IS DIFFICULT TO ACCURATELY DEFINE THE CONCEPT OF VOICE.  IT HAS TO DO WITH THE WAY YOU WRITE, THE TONE YOU TAKE (FRIENDLY, FORMAL, CHATTY, DISTANT), THE WORDS YOU CHOOSE (EVERYDAY WORDS OR HIGH-BROW LANGUAGE), THE PATTERN AND STRUCTURE OF YOUR SENTENCES AND THE WAY THESE THINGS ALIGN TOGETHER.  VOICE SHOULD BE INDIVIDUAL, DISTINCT AND SHOULD SOUND LIKE YOU.

4. EXAMPLES OF WRITING WITH STRONG VOICE I believe I have some idea of how the refugee feels, or the immigrant. Once, I was thus, or nearly so....And all the while I carried around inside me an elsewhere, a place of which I could not speak because no one would know what I was talking about. I was a displaced person, of a kind, in the jargon of the day. And displaced persons are displaced not just in space but in time; they have been cut off from their own pasts.... If you cannot revisit your own origins--reach out and touch them from time to time--you are forever in some crucial sense untethered. -Penelope Lively

5. TIPS FOR FINDING YOUR VOICE  WRITE LIKE YOU TALK.  OMIT CLICHES.  INVEST TIME IN DEVELOPING YOUR CHARACTERS. GET TO KNOW THEIR BACKGROUNDS. THEN LET THEM TELL THE STORY.  READ YOUR STORY OUTLOUD.  WE HAVE TO GO DEEP INSIDE TO FIND OUR REAL VOICE, THE ONES THAT HIDE BENEATH THE SOCIAL VENEER, AND THAT MEANS FINDING OUT WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE THINK ABOUT THE WORLD.

6. YOUR TASK  PLEASE WRITE A LETTER TO BP REGARDING THE OIL SPILL IN THE GULF.

7. YOUR TASK  PLEASE WRITE A LETTER TO BP REGARDING THE OIL SPILL IN THE GULF.  YOU WILL WRITE THE FIRST COUPLE LINES 3 DIFFERENT TIMES USING 3 DIFFERENT VOICES. YOU MIGHT INCLUDE YOUR IDEAS AS TO HOW BP SHOULD RESPOND AND ALSO WHAT PRECAUTIONS THEY CAN TAKE IN THE FUTURE.

8. YOUR TASK  PLEASE WRITE A LETTER TO BP REGARDING THE OIL SPILL IN THE GULF.  YOU WILL WRITE THE FIRST COUPLE LINES 3 DIFFERENT TIMES USING 3 DIFFERENT VOICES. YOU MIGHT INCLUDE YOUR IDEAS AS TO HOW BP SHOULD RESPOND AND ALSO WHAT PRECAUTIONS THEY CAN TAKE IN THE FUTURE. SOME POSSIBLE PERSPECTIVES TO WRITE FROM:  ENVIROMENTALIST  A FISH  THE PRESIDENT OF BP  AN ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST  SOMEONE WORKING IN THE FISHING/SEAFOOD INDUSTRY

9. ADAPTATIONS  ELEMENTARY: *ASK STUDENTS TO IMITATE THE WORK OF AUTHORS THEY KNOW AND LIKE. *HAVE THEM WRITE THEIR LETTER REGARDING SOMETHING THEY ARE CURRENTLY LEARNING ABOUT. *HAVE STUDENTS ESTABLISH ONE VOICE WELL.  HIGH SCHOOL: *ASK STUDENTS TO IMITATE THE WORK OF AUTHORS THEY KNOW AND LIKE. *HAVE STUDENTS TRY USING MANY DIFFERENT VOICES WITHIN THEIR LETTER. MAYBE THEIR CLASSMATES CAN TRY TO DETERMINE WHO THE CHARACTER MIGHT BE ACCORDING TO THE VOICE.