Hillmer’s Art of Persuasion

Final for Paper 1

Rachel Hillmer
Essay 1
WC: 1660
9/10/08

The Importance of Voice

Voice: a medium of communication or expression for somebody or something.

I love reading and love the idea of writing and being able to choose the perfect words to articulate my feelings at that precise moment to an audience. It's a liberating, terrifying, and appealing thought all in one. My father is both a very involved and well-respected instructor and author of two published novels. I never felt pressure from my Dad himself to be an amazing writer, but I felt his presence and the weight of the expectations of other teachers to produce papers unlike any of my other peers. Everyone involved in the Boulder Valley School District knows my father which only gave me more of an incentive to prove myself. One of my greatest apprehensions about writing is my fear of composing. Fear of judgment, fear of the permanence of my words in the world, fear of my own voice, or even fear that someone has already written about an idea more eloquently than I ever could. How can I, an inexperienced writer and sophomore in college, compose a piece that might compare to the work of a great writer? These anxieties make me question my abilities to succeed as a writer and a writing teacher in the classroom.

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My father and my teachers wanted to help me with my written work by reading it and providing feedback. They wanted me to succeed. There were countless times when I refused this help and believed that by accepting guidance I was not doing the real work. I still thought that, in order to be a writer, I should be capable of sitting down, free writing for a while, and creating a paper, much the way Peter Elbow describes in his work. I still believed that my passion towards my subject and my desperate desire to communicate my thoughts to society would propel me forward in my conquest for the "perfect" paper. It was only after the steady support of my father, my teachers, and the work of academics, such as Bartholomae, that I began to realize no writer can create their work, their voice, without some assistance. A writer should accept help in the form of editing, or reading about ideas that make her change her own view, or gaining knowledge that reinforces what she already knows, or being empowered by another writer's language to inspire and empower my own. There is no shame in listening to those other "dialects of influence" and allowing them to influence (2).
I don't want to be a journalist or write as a profession. I'm studying to become a teacher. I feel that it's my responsibility to be able to write with the same competence I will ask of my future students. I know that the process of writing is not meant to be easy. I struggle each and every time I sit down to write a paper, no matter how provocative the subject is to me. These difficult struggles are essential to the development of my personal writing as well as gaining a deep understanding of the literary field of humanities.
I also believe that the perception of writing and reading stems from the student's experiences with language in the world. If a student has poor composition instruction or receives unproductive criticism from one of their teachers, then their confidence as a writer could
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negatively change. The writing classroom is critical to a student's growth whether they are in first grade or in college. The most effective teachers coach their students on everything from how to construct papers to the different ways of using language effectively. So, the aspiring teacher in me must ask the inevitable question: what is the most important thing for a student to gain from the writing classroom?
After studying the work of Peter Elbow, I disagree with one of his main arguments on developing one's voice as a writer. Elbow romanticizes the act of writing so that it seems as if the writer is able to sit down and effortlessly crank out words. This idea could be damaging to those students just beginning their writing careers. If students are under the impression that composing a literary piece should be easy, then they are much more inclined to be discouraged once a spectacular paper or story doesn't emerge from a 10 minute free write.
Despite my objection to Elbow's implication that creating language is simple, I do believe, however, in his encouragement of a young writer's voice. Elbow states that the most valuable outcome of the writing classroom should be to let a students voice resonate throughout every piece of writing. Elbow celebrates the courageous student who brings his most raw and essential self to the page. Fear and struggle can push you away from finding that voice, but as Elbow says, "...it's the only voice you've got. It's your only source of power" (4). I didn't want to get special treatment because of my dad. I wanted to earn my own way. The pressures I felt from other teachers and students around me and from myself made it even more aggravating when I would struggle with my writing.
Writers can preach about the importance of voice and, although it may seem like the easiest part of writing, I personally find it do be the most difficult. As Elbow emphasizes, ideas
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such as free writing and individuality are important. He states that voice comes from a writer's self when it's untainted and in its purest form. It is not influenced by anyone or anything, but comes from within. Elbow encourages his students to write as if no one has ever written about anything before them. "... much of my behavior is a kind of invitation for them to pretend that no authorities have ever written about their subject before" (3). While I acknowledge Elbow's view, I think that it's unrealistic and not helpful to act like substantial quality ideas had been written before. We should embrace the brilliant works and other events that have come before us. Allow their language and style to influence our writing because it can only help to enhance the credibility of the work.
When it comes to voice, I find the ideas of David Bartholomae more true to my own personal writing. "For me, nothing happens, or could happen, until I imagine myself within a discourse - a kind of textual conversation/confrontation with people whose work matters to me and whose work, then, makes my own possible" (1). Bartholomae believes that voice is created by personal thoughts and experiences, but it is also born from the ideas and teachings of other great writers and academics. Voice is meant to be heard through each student's writing. It may have been initially formed or inspired by the work of others, but it must be molded into what it is today by that persons own life experiences. It is my aspiration to be courageous enough to write with my own voice and demand that it be heard as well as encourage my future students to do the same.
All writers need a starting point to find where they stand on an issue, then need to discover how these outside influences coincide with their own lives and experiences, and find their voice. It is a teacher's responsibility to encourage their students to pay attention to their
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own life experience as well as to pay attention to the experiences and ideas of others in order to develop their own perspective and voice.
A retired University of Colorado Professor and Shakespeare scholar, Reg Saner, once said, "We all write in the shadow of Shakespeare." Does this not apply to all writers as well? Even Shakespeare himself created his most influential works and developed his voice by
observing the political and social events that occurred throughout his life. I believe that Peter Elbow would agree that Shakespeare was inspired and wrote from a deep, personal place.
The play Macbeth was originally written for King James of Scotland who was the reigning King of England. James, who was one of Shakespeare's benefactors, was also fascinated with witchcraft and Scottish history. So, Shakespeare chose an ancient Scottish warrior as his protagonist and used it as a starting point to develop one of his greatest plays. Even Shakespeare, arguably the greatest writer of all time, created his most multifaceted and intriguing characters based upon the people he met and the incidents that occurred throughout his own life.
I have tried to own my voice as a writer while also giving credit to those individuals and ideas I consulted to inspire my thoughts throughout this paper. David Bartholomae and Peter Elbow both illustrate vastly different, but essential points. The fundamentals of voice are addressed through the merging of these two academics ideas. Voice is not a "solo" effort, but a collaborative process of various elements of our backgrounds and personal life. It is critical that teachers encourage students to fearlessly bring their personal presence to their writing.
As a writer, everything we learn, experience, know and believe to know shapes our ever-changing voice. As a writer, everyone we meet, connect with, befriend, idolize, and despise molds our voice into something new. I think the eloquent words of David Bartholomae best
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illustrate this internal struggle that every writer must face each time they create a work. A "...writer learns, by learning to write within and against the powerful writing that precedes him, that haunts him, and that threatens to engulf him" (1).