Saturday, October 16, 2010
The Salem Witch Trials: Voice(s)
The author believes that college level writing is really self-expression; i.e. when you've found your voice as a writer, you're writing at college level, voice being "when the writer recognizes in her or his prose or poetry a stle, tone, personality, and rhythm that work". His method of writing's also different: "writers learn by writing" and it shows; he includes quite a remarkable amount of what is truly remarkable writing by students of various ages. He ends by concluding that college level writing is "a good choice of words...using unique words to her or him"
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I do think voice is very important in writing and will admit that many examples in this article were unique, some beyond what I see at the high school level. But I couldn't help noticing that many of the samples included were in response to reading. They were students emulating the voice of a successful author. While this can be beneficial, learning from a great writer by trying to write like him or her, is emulation authentic voice?
ReplyDeleteI also found his concluding definition to be akin to a cop out. He emphasizes voice and how it is what adds sophistication to writing, but at the end kind of lumps in all the other traditional expectations of writing. He highlights "the moment at which the writer recognizes that he or she has something valuable to say", but then says it is college-level writing "when it complies with the 'conventions of correctness'".