VAWN’S WORLD

1

Voice. (Essay One: Draft)

Voice
In writing, voice is often referred to as tone, mood, style, or even just personal experience. (Being allowed to use the pronoun "I"!!) But voice has always been an issue in writing. Should a writer use voice should a writer not use voice? Will it be accepted in the academic world? Will I get a bad grade if I use voice? It seems to be the good versus evil in writing. In the academic discourse, voice appears to be discouraged. In order to be a scholar you have to write like a scholar, and in order to write like a scholar you must follow the examples of the scholars before you. It is as a chain that may once in a while allow voice. Such as Elbow, he is very "voicy" (as I make up a word here) in the way he shows writers how to write. It worked for him! He wanted individuals to search for their own styles of writing as well as developing voice. The freestyles allowed writers to experiment with voice.
I specifically remember one class so far in my college career that I was discouraged from putting voice or personal experience in my writing. This did not make sense to me seeing as how the class was "Women in Contemporary Society", and I was a woman in society. So how is it that my voice, or my personal experiences, could not benefit my papers? I wanted to ask her that question and see how she responded. I barely got a C in the class because I refused to listen to her. She continually was telling me my essays were not proving anything, and that I needed to review those essays that she had posted. They were of course the essays of the students who got A's on the papers. But reading them they seemed so "textbook bland". It was as if every single one of those student has had only a Bartholome learning experience. They were females in society, just like me, writing on issues for example gender segregation in the work place. I have had a few incidents where I felt that I was being treated different than a male so I wrote about that experience. I told how I felt. How I thought the situation should have been handled. Over all I was proud of my essay and my individual stance for women. But the other women wrote about past experiences of other women, for instance days when women were not allowed to vote. It was like reading a book report on that time era. I wondered why they got the A's, they were not even there for that they did not experience those difficult times and honestly women today don't fully understand what it must have been like to be a woman then! This made me incredibly mad. Our essays were saying the same exact thing, the only difference is I allow the reader to hear my experience rather than report what another woman was feeling.
But I guess it is not their fault for being such boring over achievers. During high school we are shown how to structure an essay (preparing us for college). It is the typical structured piece of writing... introduction, thesis, three supporting paragraphs, and a conclusion. We report what we find in a summary for each supporting topic of the thesis. We are encouraged to research facts proven by people in the true academic discourse. And to even support the support, just in case we have not made it comprehensible enough. But if we have an opinion on the issue we are must exclude that, because it does not help your supporting arguments.
But why does the academic world discourage voice? What is so wrong with it? How can teachers start allowing their students to using voice? Or is voice a type of writing only some individuals get, like poetry? Even if it was viewed as a poetry class of writing, even in high school we had a poetry section. Teachers should put together a voice lesson to show students how to put voice in a paper. Or even just how to set a tone for the paper to make it their own piece of work. They should show students the fine line between when voice should and should not be used rather than just ignoring voice. We, as students, need to know when voice is allowed and when voice is not allowed. I understand that a research paper is not the best time to be using voice, but a 100 level Women's studies class should be!! We should not be discouraged or put down for using voice, we just need to be shown when the appropriate time is to use it ( and to be reasonable when deciding if we can use it or not).