Voice in writing, is the sense of the author's character, personality, and attitude that comes through the words. See TONE. . . . Through word choice, sentence structures, and what is actually said, the writer conveys an attitude and sets a prevailing spirit. Tone in writing varies as greatly as tone of voice varies in conversation. It can be serious, distant, flippant, angry, enthusiastic, sincere, sympathetic. Whatever tone a writer chooses, usually it informs an entire essay and helps a reader decide how to respond. (The Bedford Reader, 4th ed.)

However, voice also can be used to discuss the trademark style we associate with a well-known writer, or the mask-persona a writer adopts and alters to suit a particular theme and purpose.

Good student writers may become as familiar to us as our favorite celebrated authors: what teacher has not pulled a beloved strong voice from the middle of a stack of papers to read as a reward for fifteen previously graded boring essays? or placed that same student's paper at the back of the stack to motivate a quick reading of ten additional papers? Voice is synaesthetic, an auditory word used to describe the printed word. Student voices are strongest when encouraged to speak honestly, freely, and confidently, knowing that their argument can be presented in unique ways, as long as it is well-supported with strong examples and discussion. Encourage the judicious use of "I" and the papers you read will be more interesting. I promise.

Voices from an AP English Language Classroom: January 2-6, 2001

At the front of the classroom: "Language most shows a man. Speak that I might see." Ben Johnson

Allie Garcia responding to Ben Johnson:
Can you not see and hear his passion? It is as if he is crying out loud in a room full of pompous brutes, pleaing for understanding and comfort. I find it ironic that eleven words can be arranged in a way that can move a person into a whole realm of belief! . . . . When I first read the Johnson quote, I felt as though the words were my own. Then the intriguing conversation we were having abruptly ended, and I was left in the middle of the dark room, searching and searching for something that may not even exist! If literature is the sole embodiment of knowledge, an embodiment or dictionary of all human character and flaws, then for goodness sake, speak so that I might see!!

Teacher:
Voice is the person behind the piece. Style is the clothes we wear on any particular day. [I said this on our first day of discussion, after the students probed the topic awhile, and everyone seemed pleased with what I had muttered, but look how much more profound the students were themselves, once they pondered the subject, or perhaps even "stargazed," I realize now, for a couple of days.]

"How do we as young writers write with our own voice? Expose ourselves to lots of authors, lots of ideas." [Someone--I didn't write down the name-- posed this essential question and answer right away, and it still seems key to our consideration of voice.]

Kaitlyn Fitch:
Developing a literary voice is the whole point of this class . . . . Finding our literary voices is just one component of discovering who we are.

Erin Kreml:
I was in an English class one year in which the teacher the teacher had a formula for everything. There was a formula for vocabulary, for teaching analogies, for everyday classroom activities. We even had a formula for writing papers. In the first paragraph . . . . The goal of high school English is to teach students how to think deeply on their own and convey thoughts to paper . . . I felt cheated when this class was over.

Andy Liddell:
To discover the mythic key to voice, if any such a key exists, one must look at existence. Life is a pond, and every person is a pebble dropped into it, creating ripples that extend, connecting with other ripples ad finitum . . . . To find a new voice, one must become a new rock, or move to a different corner of the pond; being a rock, this is no simple prospect.

Kelley Rivoire:
Ultimately, the soul of the writer acts as the only force that can truly determine voice. A thread binds all words of the author together to create one more powerful persona . . . . This voice can only be acquired by human experience and by integrity to oneself.

Lee Hallowell: from "The Book of Illumination"
I can not promise that the book will reveal its true nature to you because I have not known you well enough to be a competent judge of your character . . . . yet he felt reluctant to take the book. On the surface, it bore no marking to distinguish it from a ledger or any other volume; it looked like just some old text tossed casually onto the altar, but there was an air of power, an aura of mystery and fear surrounding the old tomb." It doesn't seem right somehow, to touch it," he observed quietly after a moment.

Lauren Williams:
Walt Whitman described his book Leaves of Grass by saying, "This is no book. Who touches this touches a man." To me, that is the very essence of voice!

Husna Ali: from "Halo Around the Moon"
And so I wait
For you to show your face through the mist
Your tight jaw and your clenched fist
I know you have come through the times of hard
And you reminded me of the time
We looked upon the first evening star
That's when I smile feeling convinced
That I am freed from this trance
And when the clouds begin to give in
To shards of sunlight piercing through my canopy
Then for sure I'll know this Moment has passed

Susan Beall:
Each new author reveals a novice voice, and I gain a viewpoint of another's soul.

Stephan Kontos:
To me, voice is the aura that a certain piece emanates and the reader feels. These different voices given off are characteristic of an author; however, they may be manipulated by the reader inadvertently.

Elaine Louie:
Influenced by theme and subject matter, portrayed by tone and diction, and enhanced by technique and style, voice is the embodiment of the author's personality shining through the cloud of words on the inky page.

Megan Hendrix, on finding a voice:
Become unaware of the mechanical issues of the work: just kind of make it like a Magic Eye Puzzle and let your eyes and ears fall over the paper and extract the person from the piece.

from Plato's Phaedrus:
Phaedrus: Yet how and from what source may one acquire the true art of rhetorical persuasion?
Socrates: The ability, Phaedrus, to become a finished performer is probably, or perhaps certainly, like everything else: if it is in your nature to be a speaker, an eloquent speaker you will be if you also acquire knowledge and practice. If you are deficient in any of these, to this extent you will be imperfect . . . . Every great art must be supplemented by leisurely discussion, by stargazing, if you will, about the nature of things.