Voice...resonating down the halls of the academy...

[Subtitle: If I learned one thing last week, it's that my voice RESONATES!!]

I'm sure this will shock you all, but I believe that resonant voice has a very important role in the academy--in student writing, in teaching, and in grading. Seriously. . .when was the last time you read a formal text that was completely devoid of personality? Did you like it, or was it borrrrrring? Bartholomae can "write in the academy" until the cows come home, but we still recognize his voice. Think about it: how much of his writing doesn't include the occasional "I want to argue that..." or some other identifying phrase? That's his voice.

So I shall borrow from Elbow and Bartholomae, for just a few seconds, by "trying on" [Elbow] Bartholomae's voice. I want to argue that voice is perhaps more necessary to the academy now than in the past, because people today are more influenced by others' voices than ever before. We have TV in elevators of high-rise buildings; we have YouTube and other Internet sources coming at us from every direction; we have iPods, personal ringtones, PDAs...we are constantly surrounded by voices. Before we realize it, we've adopted pop-culture "isms" ("I'm so not going to go to class today," "Oh, no, you didn't just say that," "That was the most gynormous lie I ever heard!"). We are influenced by so many voices that we are at risk of losing our own...permanently.

We all have stories about favorite teachers (as well as the "not so much" variety). Of the tales we've heard from classmates, how many of them have centered on margin commentary? Don't we all have certain words (or even lines) permanently etched in our memories? "Nicely argued!" "Do that again!" "I can't even GUESS what that means!" "UGH!" That's resonant voice, pure and simple. Maybe we didn't like what we read, but we sure as heck remember it; and we derive something from it...even if that something is "I never want to be THAT teacher!"

So I want to argue that, yes, voice is important in teaching and grading. Am I going to be the favorite of all my students? No way. Are they going to remember something about me? Probably; and it will probably be something I've written.

And I want to argue that, yes, student voice is important, too. Have you had this experience? You're slogging along, grading the two zillionth brief assignment [fill in the blank] over the same lackluster text...and all of a sudden a voice resonates out of that little TTOPIC-window wilderness. Sure, it might be poorly written, but the kid has managed to allow his or her voice to shine through--while remaining entirely within assignment guidelines. Although I've enjoyed several such moments, my favorite example is probably still the pie chart from BA 1: kid after kids pointed out that female participants had rated "financial status" and "personal-psychological traits" as least important attributes in males (with a total of 3%). But one kid prefaced that statement with "Fortunately for male undergraduates,..." That's resonant voice, and I'll probably remember it for years to come. Did he undermine or the compete with "academic voice" there? I don't think so; I think he enhanced it.

How do we teach students to write with voice? Well, I think we model it, for one thing (and of course, that means we need to find our own). I think we encourage them to take risks while reminding them to choose their times and their degrees of resonance wisely. Several of my students write with voice--some more successfully than others. As might be expected, some are struggling to gauge how much is too much, while others are learning how much is too little. Mr. "Fortunately" has written a properly formal Draft 1.1, but that je ne sais quoi resonates here and there. How do we assess it? Well, I've noticed that both the first and second readers commented on Mr. F's "engaging" writing style. They may not realize they're commenting on his voice, but I do.

What about us as students? Can we/should we write with voice? You bet! How do you think I got here, old as I am? It sure wasn't those stellar GRE scores!