Voice: Coloring In Your Personality

 

            Today's Snack: Have you ever had a cheese cigar? Just sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese on a soft tortilla, and microwave on "high" for 1 minute. Wait just a moment until the tortilla cools down enough for you to handle it. Then roll it up into a "cigar." But instead of smoking it, you EAT it! Team this treat with a glass of orange juice, and if you've been real good lately, you can plunk a scoop of soft vanilla ice cream into it, and stir it into a creamy orange drink treat.

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Supplies:

 

A copy of a story by a professional writer you admire

 

A story that you have written

 

Colored pencils or marking pens

 

 

            After you read these tips, go over both stories and circle the words that you think reveal each writer's "voice" well. But first, let's talk about what "voice" is:

 

            You don't have to be a detective to figure out a lot about a person based on how that person writes. Just listening to the words and sentences will answer many questions about whether that person is young or old, serious or humorous, at ease or nervous, pushy or meek, rich or poor, from the United States or not, and indeed, from WHAT PART of the United States.

 

            How can you tell all that just from the words a person chooses?

 

Because whenever we write, we expose part of our personality. We reveal our style. Each one of us is like a mirror to the world, reflecting our thoughts, feelings, opinions, beliefs, experiences and background, and usually, we can't help it.

 

            There are several facets, or aspects, of voice in writing:

 

·        Word choice.

 

·        Sentence length and variety.

 

·        Topic choice.

 

·        Risk-taking (extra revealing of strong emotion).

 

·        Getting "real" with slang, casual language, unexpected or unfamiliar words, or other ways to connect with a specific audience.

 

·        Variety of voice, or a temporary change in style for emphasis.

 

 

Simply by our choice of words, we reveal a lot about ourselves. There are many, many ways to say that someone moved across a room, for example. The blandest and most boring is to say he "went." That doesn't show much of his personality, or yours. But if you wrote that he "slithered" across the room, we know that you detest him, and that tells us something about him and aboutyou. Or if you say that he "bounced" across the room, we'll want to know why, and we'll depend on you to tell us.

 

So remember to choose really distinct words that have real personality in your writing. That's how to capture the reader's attention, and keep it throughout your paper.

 

By how short or how long a sentence is, we reveal our personality, too. If you want to show that you are frustrated, you could have a one-word sentence with an exclamation point: "Darn!" Or if you want to describe something that is complicated and intricate, you could write a rather complicated and intricate sentence, like this one, with a lot of punctuation.

 

Simply by our choice of topic, too, we reveal a little about our personality. That goes for the topic of your whole paper, or the topic of each paragraph within it. If you choose to write about the funniest thing that ever happened to you, that says something about what you are like, compared to if you choose to write technical details about the most fantastic bridge that has ever been designed.

 

            Both of those are fine topics! It is in the choice - personal humor, or engineering facts -- that we get a glimpse of what is important to you. And it is what you DON'T write, sometimes, that we get the clearest picture of all about your personality. For example, if you choose to write humor, it shows that you are brave enough to risk getting laughed at. But if you DON'T choose to write about bridge details, then maybe it isn't important to you to teach other people practical things about the world.

 

            Either way, it's OK. Every personality is different . . . and every piece of writing has a different purpose.

 

            In writing, we call it "voice" when you are exposing your personality with your words and ideas. It is what makes each piece of writing different, because each writer is different! The whole point to writing is to express an individual message. So it's important to let your individual personality shine through, loud and clear, and distinctly different than anybody else's.

 

            Next time you are with a group of people, listen to all their different voices, and notice how you can tell who is speaking with your eyes closed, if they're in your family or classroom. Each and every one of us has a different physical voice with which to speak. It's the same way with our writing. We're all unique! And that's great!

 

            Now, we can all vary our voices a little bit - but even if we talk really high like a cartoon character, or 'way down low like a giant, our friends can still tell it is us. It's the same way with your writing: you can vary your style a little bit within the same piece of writing, but not much. You should pretty much stay consistent, and be the same "you" throughout your paper.

 

But you may vary your voice a lot between two different kinds of writing assignments. When you're writing a science textbook or an article for an encyclopedia, you don't want to draw any attention to yourself. So you pretty much conceal your "voice" in that kind of writing. You write factually and in a straightforward, no-nonsense manner.

 

            But if you're writing the story of your life, or an ad for a product you're trying to sell, then yes! You do show your strong emotions and your distinct passions - exactly what makes you sad and why, what makes you excited, what makes you angry, what makes you feel hopeful.

 

            The more risks you take by revealing what you are interested in, and what you really think, the better the reader will feel that he or she knows you. And that's a good goal of writing: to reveal truth and connect with the reader.

 

            The more details you include to "prove" that your opinions are real, and to make your writing more convincing, the clearer your "voice" will be, and the better your communication power will be, also.

 

            The closer your writing comes to the way that you actually speak, the better and clearer your "voice" will be, too. You don't talk to your friends in a phony or dull way, do you? Of course not! You are charming, interesting, honest and warm. So you should let the real you shine through in your writing. Don't worry that you aren't using big enough words, or complicated enough sentences. Write as you speak, and you'll be fine!

 

Another factor to consider with voice in writing is that a good writer will match his or her voice with the needs of the reading audience. So if you were writing a report that is going to be read by your teacher, you know your teacher is a good reader and wants you to be serious and informative. So you will choose relatively serious words and write in a formal style with longer sentences that have more complexity.

 

            But if you are writing a note to your best friend, you will probably choose slang terms and much more casual language, and you might not even write complete sentences, but just jot down notes and ask questions and so forth.

 

            You're the same "you" in both pieces of writing - but you show a slightly different "face" to the world, and use a slightly different "pitch" to your voice.

 

            Now color-code your colored pencils or markers, and go over that good story you picked out by a professional writer. Circle the words that reveal each facet of the writer's voice in the writing. Maybe you could use these color markers for these facets of voice:

 

·        Word choice.

 

·        Sentence length and variety.

 

·        Topic choice.

 

·        Risk-taking (extra revealing of strong emotion).

 

·        Getting "real" with slang, casual language, or other ways to connect with a specific audience.

 

·        Variety of voice, or a temporary change in style for emphasis.

 

Finally, go over the story you wrote, and do the same thing. Can you see your personality emerge? Is your "voice" distinctive? Keep working - keep writing - and one day, your words will "sing" to your reader with power and beauty!