VAWN’S WORLD

Voice (Final)

Amanda Vaughan

Essay 1: Revision

Word count: 1,010

Voice (Take Two)

In writing voice is often referred to as tone, mood, style, or even just personal experience (Being able to use the pronoun “I’!). But voice has always been an issue in writing. It is something every college student knows! The academic world discourages voice. But why do they discourage voice? What is so wrong with it? Some feel that it should not be included in all papers, but I would have to disagree with that. I would have to agree that voice is something to exclude in research papers and scientific papers, but voice is not something to ban. I feel that professors think that if they give their students freedom to play with voice that they will lose structure and “backbone” to their papers.

Students constantly worry about the grade that will be received when using voice. 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 scholar before you. It is 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. Voice worked for him. He wanted individuals to search for their own styles of writing as well as developing 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 the class was “women in Contemporary Society”, and I WAS a woman in society. So how is it that 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 papers. But reading them they seemed so “textbook bland”. It was as if every single one of those students has only a Bartholome learning experiences. They were jam packed with facts and statistics it was like reading a medical essay on some of the topics. The thing so confusing to me was that they too were females in society writing on issues such as gender segregation in the work place. I have had a few incidents where I have felt that I was being treated differently 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 in the class 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 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 back then! The other essays made me mad. Our essays were saying the exact same thing however the only difference is I allow my reader to hear my experience rather than report what another woman was feeling.

For instance we wrote an essay on men and how insurance companies par for their use of Viagra, but women have to pay out of pocket for their birth control. The argument was that insurance companies see that issue for men a “quality of like issue”. OS I argued my point from how I felt. I argued that women use it for other reasons than just pregnancy prevention. And then I brought my aunt into the argument. I argued that if men can claim that quality of life issue than hom come women like my aunt are denied a breast augmentation after having breast cancer and losing her right breast. My argument was still concerning insurance and the “quality of life issue”! But to her my argument was “pointless and off topic”. I received a D on that paper. Instead of seeing my argument(that yes insurance companies can be sexist…which was the WHOLE point) she just read my paper, saw the voice, and automatically gave me a bad grade. I believe that I made a wonderful point and addressed what I needed to. I feel like in that instance I should not have been punished by the academic world for using voice.

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 individuals 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 an issue we must exclude voice. We are told that it will never help support a paper.

So should professors start teaching voice? And if so how? Professors should put together a voice lesson to show students how to put voice in writing, or even just how to set a tone for a paper to have a personalized twist. Basically they need to show students the fine lines 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 research papers are not the 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 need to be shown when the appropriate time is to be using voice.