Inside Out: chapter 6 different voice, different speaker

Inside Out Strategies for Teaching Writing

Chapter 6: Different Voices, Different Speakers

At the core of writing is voice. The way in which one communicates with his/her audience is the style or voice of that writer. It is important for beginner writers to know how they sound in their writing and to know that their message is getting across in a way that they would want it to sound. Also good writers learn to use a particular voice for a particular kind of writing. It is necessary for young writers to get to know their different voices, and they need adequate time and practice to develop their voices as best as possible. Therefore, it is important not to move them on to 'serious' expository writing too soon without being able to develop their voices.

Our classes are made up of such a wide range of varied backgrounds, experiences, personalities, perceptions, abilities, mannerisms, cultures, religious, and the list goes on. Each of us is unique, and everything we do impacts how and what we think and how we express ourselves. When we write about what we know and care about in a clear, purposeful, and authoritative way, it can reveal itself through our voice. It is important that we try to nurture this diversity within our students. In the effort toward becoming mature writers, we want our students to be able to adapt their voice to a particular kind of writing and to effectively reach their audience. Three aspects of writing interweave and can not be separate; purpose of writing, the intended audience, and the voice.

Our focus is on tuning the voice. There are three exercises that help to develop the students' diverse range of writing voices, their capabilities, and ability to use a variety of stylistic devices in their writing. These activities are Mad Talking, Soft Talking, and Fast Talking.

In Mad Talking, students need to write about something that made them very angry. In the follow-up of the activity some stylistic devices you would expect to see/hear are loaded language, abrupt sentences, repetition of key words or phrases, invective language, and profanity.

Then with Soft Talk, students would think of a person or thing in need of comforting words, say if they're hurt or sad. The follow-up here would reveal stylistic devices of repetition, a slower pace, rhythmical sentences linked with conjunctions, showing empathy and reassurance, and few punctuations.

Finally with Fast Talk, students think of something they believe strongly in, that's pressing, or requires persuasion. Again in the follow-up there should be evidence of logical, parallel sentence patterns, and strong, active, imperative verbs.

In each case, students need to be able to recognize the different styles of voice and how effect they are at convincing the particular audience of the purpose of the writing. It is important, teachers, to not grade these papers, but to point out the outstanding stylistic devices used.

There are several different ways to use dialogue to develop voice. One is to Talk Back to Yourself. Carry on a conservation over a heated topic pretending to be father and son, or mother and daughter. Another idea is to use contrasting voices. It could be two people on the street or in a shopping mall dealing with somekind of encounter. You could try pairing of students to role-play different characters and create a dialogue. There's the one sided phone conversation. In Who Owns the Voice, a student could mimic a celebrity for the class to identify. The main point is for our students to develop control and agility with their written voices.