Voice- an article from Grammar GirlWhat Is a Writing Voice?
Voice is the distinct personality, style, or point of view of a piece of writing or any other creative work. Voice is what Simon Cowell is talking about when he tells "American Idol" contestants to make a song their own and not just do a note-for-note karaoke version. Many musicians have played "The Star-Spangled Banner," for instance, but there's a world of difference between the Boston Pops' performance and Jimi Hendrix's, even though the basic melody is the same.In writing, the New York Times and the New York Post may cover the same story, but their headlines are likely to be quite different. For example, when Ike Turner died, the New York Times had a straightforward headline: "Ike Turner, Musician and Songwriter in Duo With Tina Turner, Dies at 76"; whereas the New York Post went for a bad pun: "Ike 'Beats' Tina to Death. "Why Voice Matters" There's a big difference between a conversational voice on a celebrity gossip site and a conversational voice on a bank site. Voice is important because your writing should have as much personality as you do. You've read things that seem to have been written by committee, and it's not a fun experience. A strong voice helps you make every word count, establishes consistency across your website or body of work, and most importantly helps you grab your readers' attention and establish a relationship with them. You probably have a short list of writers you'll read no matter what their subject, because you like their style so much, and other writers you can't stand because they sound snarky or condescending or otherwise unappealing to you. Finding Your Voice So how do you discover and develop your voice? Start by thinking about these three things:
How Do You Translate Voice into Words? The next step is to translate those voice characteristics into writing mechanics. Voice may affect your word choice, sentence and story structure, even your punctuation. For example, if you're writing about fashion for tween girls, and you want your voice to be fun, trendy, upbeat, and accessible, then you might want to keep your vocabulary at an eighth-grade level but allow slang and even some made-up words for freshness; you might want to set an attention-span-appropriate word count; and punctuation marks that some people consider too casual, such as exclamation points and ellipses, are probably OK in moderation. Create some writing do's and don'ts specific to your voice.There are a few elements to be careful with: jargon, culture-specific references, and humor. If you're speaking to a highly specific readership, like tech fans or grammar geeks, then it may be not only necessary but expected that you'll use insider terminology like "cloud computing" or "nonrestrictive clause." But generally speaking, the more diverse your audience, the more you should strive for clarity and simplicity and avoid slang, humor that might be misconstrued, and culture-specific references. For instance, baseball-derived slang like "bush league" and "batting average" may be Greek to anyone not from the U.S. What's the Difference Between Tone and Voice? One more thing: Some of you may be wondering what the difference is between voice and tone. You could consider tone a subset of voice. If voice is the personality of a story, then tone is the mood. Although lots of writers could describe their voice as funny, the mood of their individual pieces might be dark or biting or silly or sarcastic. Summary A strong, well-defined voice is the bridge between you and your audience: It helps your readers understand who you are, and it helps you engage them and keep them coming back for more. Take 20 minutes to define your voice, and you'll never sound like bad karaoke or committee writing. The Yahoo! Style GuideThis article was written by Julie Wildhaber, one of the minds behind the new book the Yahoo! Style Guide. If you like what you read here, check out the Yahoo! Style Guide, on sale July 6, 2010, or visit styleguide.yahoo.com. |
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MLA Citations
Purdue OWL and EasybibWe will use MLA style citations in my class. The following links should be
helpful. Purdue University Online Writing Lab--Purdue OWL EasyBib--Citation/Bibliography Maker ALWAYS check your own citations for accuracy instead of trusting the output of any website. |