The second class period, I read an article on voice that someone had sent to me years ago, "Who am I?: Finding Identity & Voice in Composition" by Beverly Faryna, in which students' voices range from the private (saying that their paper is "a bitch") to the more public voice (where the student takes on a more analytical role and uses a discourse which is somewhat more appropriate) (1). I read the paper aloud, and then expected to break into conversation about what they believed "voice" to be...
What happened was that after I asked them what they thought of the two paragraphs and if they noted any changes, they turned to their neighbors and asked "did she really just say 'bitch'?" ... I felt horrible, and thought that my cursing was done in vain; however, we continued. We discussed "old, dead, white guy" voices, the academics, public speeches, and private discourse. We talked about various dance genres and how certain "moves" are used to spice up a dance, and where they would expect to use moves (The class was decidedly against using krunk moves in a ball-room setting), and then we talked about how, in general, writers make certain moves depending on their setting as well. It's not to say that you can't make other moves, but that, in representing yourself, you don't want to make a fool out of yourself either. There are "expectations," but there are ways to push those. We didn't discuss it further because we'll talk more about it later on in the quarter, and I wanted to make sure that my students had time for their in-class essay.
Thirty minutes before the end of class, I had them write an essay on how they view their voices, themselves as authors, and their expectations of themselves. When they were finished, they could leave. Some took 15 minutes, others took more. While reading their papers, I was happy to see that they really took into consideration who they believe themselves to be, and who they want to portray themselves as in future papers.
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