Voice in writing in my thinking is a metaphor with a literal and figurative aspect. While written words don't produce sound, readers often say they "hear" the text in their minds. This internal vocalization could be the origin of the metaphor. A ubiquitous experience for mature readers, this inner voice may be a necessary but insufficient part of comprehension and interpretation.
Like spoken language, written text has patterns of stress, pauses, and flow that conventionally signal vocal qualities. Prosody, the intonation contours of spoken utterances cued by grammar and punctuation, is important for a) serving as a resource for the writer who must make sense of sentences for themselves as part of writing (conventional wisdom to writers: read your text out loud) and b) being a cueing system for syntactic support for readers. Spelling, punctuation, and formatting can guide readers on how words might be spoken aloud.
Figurative aspects of voice abound I think because readers often perceive a presence or a persona they construct from stylistic elements. I use the notion of “style” as a tangible idea for emerging writers. Chicken comes breaded and deep fried, broiled, roasted, baked, grilled, stuffed, shredded, ground and formed into burgers—it’s all chicken until style enters the picture to remake it to represent the chef’s “voice” for the occasion.
A writer's "voice" represents their unique style, perspective, and character that come through in their writing. I gotta be me goes the song. The overall mood or attitude conveyed in the writing by word choices, sentence emphasis, level of formality, etc. are proxies for the raw brute gutturals and whispers of a speaking presence.
A strong writing voice is cultivated by consciously designing a text to convey a certain persona, using expertise to build credibility, similar to how we associate certain vocal qualities with authority in speech. Learning to write with a controlled voice takes place when the writer gets feedback from a reader. Just as people have unique vocal characteristics, writers develop recognizable styles that set them apart.
A genuine writing voice judged so by a reader feels true to the author, much like how we associate a person's speaking voice with their authentic self. This figurative aspect is ironic in that human subjective responses to “voice” are sometimes tough to validate with either spoken or textual evidence. We feel it, baby, we believe it. So a critical stance toward perception of voice trumps a naive stance.
The metaphor of "voice" in writing works because it captures both the technical aspects of how spoken language communicates the abstract qualities of personal expression and communication and the compositional of written text. It bridges the gap between the physical act of speaking and the cognitive process of reading, helping us understand written communication in terms of a familiar, embodied experience.
I’ve always had more success in teaching the concept of voice by focusing on developing a “reader’s voice.” Raising awareness of what writers do to cue a particular “presence” isn’t amenable to multiple choice testing because it is both predictable and idiosyncratic. How we talk about a text’s presence with others is our “reader’s voice” in mature form speaking back to the text. Opportunities for open discussions of powerful texts can exercise the reader’s voice and stock a toolkit for writers to draw on.
Speaking voices are very difficult to fake. This point explains why actors and public speakers have to work so hard to come across as genuine. Legal settings rely on spoken testimony for this very reason.
Relying on a routine speaking voice is a baseline for most novice writers. The art of writing often means putting on a face and creating print that “speaks” to readers as the writer intends. AI as a machine has the potential to serve as a tool for a writer to craft an intended voice. Once readers understand that writers create voices because both readers and writers can speak in the moment under the power of human intelligence, AI is no longer a threat.
Voice in writing in my thinking is a metaphor with a literal and figurative aspect. While written words don't produce sound, readers often say they "hear" the text in their minds. This internal vocalization could be the origin of the metaphor. A ubiquitous experience for mature readers, this inner voice may be a necessary but insufficient part of comprehension and interpretation.
Like spoken language, written text has patterns of stress, pauses, and flow that conventionally signal vocal qualities. Prosody, the intonation contours of spoken utterances cued by grammar and punctuation, is important for a) serving as a resource for the writer who must make sense of sentences for themselves as part of writing (conventional wisdom to writers: read your text out loud) and b) being a cueing system for syntactic support for readers. Spelling, punctuation, and formatting can guide readers on how words might be spoken aloud.
Figurative aspects of voice abound I think because readers often perceive a presence or a persona they construct from stylistic elements. I use the notion of “style” as a tangible idea for emerging writers. Chicken comes breaded and deep fried, broiled, roasted, baked, grilled, stuffed, shredded, ground and formed into burgers—it’s all chicken until style enters the picture to remake it to represent the chef’s “voice” for the occasion.
A writer's "voice" represents their unique style, perspective, and character that come through in their writing. I gotta be me goes the song. The overall mood or attitude conveyed in the writing by word choices, sentence emphasis, level of formality, etc. are proxies for the raw brute gutturals and whispers of a speaking presence.
A strong writing voice is cultivated by consciously designing a text to convey a certain persona, using expertise to build credibility, similar to how we associate certain vocal qualities with authority in speech. Learning to write with a controlled voice takes place when the writer gets feedback from a reader. Just as people have unique vocal characteristics, writers develop recognizable styles that set them apart.
A genuine writing voice judged so by a reader feels true to the author, much like how we associate a person's speaking voice with their authentic self. This figurative aspect is ironic in that human subjective responses to “voice” are sometimes tough to validate with either spoken or textual evidence. We feel it, baby, we believe it. So a critical stance toward perception of voice trumps a naive stance.
The metaphor of "voice" in writing works because it captures both the technical aspects of how spoken language communicates the abstract qualities of personal expression and communication and the compositional of written text. It bridges the gap between the physical act of speaking and the cognitive process of reading, helping us understand written communication in terms of a familiar, embodied experience.
I’ve always had more success in teaching the concept of voice by focusing on developing a “reader’s voice.” Raising awareness of what writers do to cue a particular “presence” isn’t amenable to multiple choice testing because it is both predictable and idiosyncratic. How we talk about a text’s presence with others is our “reader’s voice” in mature form speaking back to the text. Opportunities for open discussions of powerful texts can exercise the reader’s voice and stock a toolkit for writers to draw on.
Speaking voices are very difficult to fake. This point explains why actors and public speakers have to work so hard to come across as genuine. Legal settings rely on spoken testimony for this very reason.
Relying on a routine speaking voice is a baseline for most novice writers. The art of writing often means putting on a face and creating print that “speaks” to readers as the writer intends. AI as a machine has the potential to serve as a tool for a writer to craft an intended voice. Once readers understand that writers create voices because both readers and writers can speak in the moment under the power of human intelligence, AI is no longer a threat.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it:)
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