"Voice in Writing Again" by Peter Elbow

     I never really thought about the use of voice in writing until reading Peter Elbow's "Voice in Writing Again". I don't know if I was explicitly taught this or if it is subconsciously done, but I always assumed that if I was writing an academic paper then my voice would have to be as dry and boring as all the rest. The only time I could inject my personality into the writing was when it was a creative piece. To be completely honest, I still feel weird that my blog posts aren't very formal and proper.

     There are people in this world who could read an anonymous piece of writing and then pinpoint the author. I am not one of those people. Whether this is mainly due to voice or unique style, I don't know; but I can't do it. I know the quality of writing some of my students are capable of, but I couldn't tell you who wrote what.

     This year, like most, I notice a change in quality when we move from the creative writing portion of the class to the persuasive. Consider the following beginning to a student's narrative:

          "Buzzbuzzbuzz. Eve was startled by the incessant vibrations of the phone beside her ear.  
She whined before grabbing her phone and unlocking it furiously. Her best friend, Karina, was 
spamming Eve with multiple texts."

I love the language and personality this student incorporates into the story. Unfortunately, this same student, when given a persuasive task this past week, left the class without writing anything down. It wasn't for lack of trying, she just couldn't find the right way to begin. She couldn't find a way to include her voice in what she thought was supposed to be a dry paper.

  I frequent Reddit, a community site on which the users submit content of all varieties. I particularly enjoy reading the comments on most posts, mainly because they are all so comical. By now, I've read comments from thousands of different users, but they all read as though they came from the same mind. It seems to me that the Internet has established its own collective voice, with thousands, perhaps millions, of unique contributors falling in with one another.

I am excited by the new idea for the group project, mainly because it gives more freedom to everyone to be themselves. each piece would be extremely personal, featuring everyone's own voice. In terms of the Digital Writing Month, I'm also excited by the possibilities this might present. I've never really created anything outside of normal assignments. This blog is the most advanced thing I've even attempted.