Voice In Second Language Writing

What is voice in writing and why is it considered important?

In hindsight, voice is considered by some as the single most important element in writing (Murray, 1984) because it separates writing that is not read from writing that is read . This provokes the challenging question of what is actually meant by voice. Is voice used to represent the self or is it used as a camouflage that enables a writer to express political, historical and social views? To what extent does a writer present anything and everything to the world in the 21st century? Therefore, is voice a means to hide who we are? Is voice a concept that we learn to implement in our writing from a very young age? Taking these issues into account, this essay will outline the meaning and significance of voice in writing and consider if an L2 voice exists, and seek to uncover whether it is only limited to the culture of the writer s native language. It will also argue whether having a voice in L2 is as distinguishable as an L1 voice - the voice hidden behind the native tongue, as well as the teaching methods to discover if voice is taught, or if it is a continuously changing process that is unique to all writers.

Different Voices in Writing Academic, Personal and Detached

According to Bowden (1995) voice is a metaphor and is to do with the feeling, hearing and sensing of a person behind the written words. This is supported by Opsata (1995) from the University of Washington who claims that voice establishes a relationship between the writer and reader that can range from being an intimate voice to detached voice. However, it must be noted that voice is also dependent on the writing style that is undertaken by the writer. This highlights that it is the choice of words that reflect this process and effects the extent the reader understands or visualises the voice of the piece of writing. Engaging with the writer especially in academic and personal writing would thus pose very different ideas of the voice for the reader to engage with. An academic voice, is where more distance should occur between the reader and the generator of the text (Opsata, 1995). Firstly, because the reader and writer do not know each other i.e. it is not a personal text such as a letter to a close friend or family member. A personal text needs to be emotional and visual so it allows the reader to connect with the intentions of the writer. In personal writing it is therefore necessary that the reader gets a strong indication of the how the writer feels about the subject (1995). In this way, a relationship between the writer is established because the reader easily gauges what the writer is saying due to the style of voice that the writer employs in the piece of text. On the other hand, academic writing can be very difficult to follow because the voice may be so deeply embedded that it can only be recognized by people who are familiar with that person or who have been following an ongoing conversation for a while (Colorado State University, undated). This suggests that if the reader is unaware of the voice or if there is no clear voice, the text in question will be unengaging and not emotionally stimulating to the reader. Notwithstanding, the impact and successfulness of a text is also dependent on the personal interests of the reader, and those of the academic author. If the text is economical with words but provides no emotional stimulation it is impossible to get behind the written words (Bowden, 1995) to discover the person behind them. The fact that there are different voices that are juxtaposed to text styles forces us to consider if voice is as relevant as previously thought because it is not the voice that makes an impact, it is rather the linguistic style of the piece that overtake the presumed individuality that a voice consists of.

Furthermore, the sense of voice being an individual trait of writing is challenged by Matsuda who questions if there is necessarily a relationship between voice and individualism. This is to say if you have a voice in writing it does not signify that the information produced in the text is unique to the author. According to Matsuda voice is not necessarily tied to the ideology of individualism (2007:36). However, historically the notion of voice in L1 composition did come out of a movement imbued with the ideology of individualism and expressivism (Atkinson, 2001:5) indicating that in pre-modern literature the presence of a voice in writing was an idealised subject and was thought of as important in writing. Cole (1993:9) supports this by stating that to understand the writer s behaviour it means to understand the history of behaviour indicating that it was once thought of as vital, and of something unique to have a voice in writing. This, however stands in contrast to Gardner (2010) who claims the materialistic 21^st century world is where we present images of ourselves to the word that we want the world to see (Gardner, 2010) This alludes that in the current western world a voice focusses on the trying to be something you re not self, your copycat self or your trying to sound a certain way self (Gardner, 2010). On the other hand, trying to become something that you are not indicates that we are becoming voiceless writers (Hirvela & Belcher, 2001:84) because what we are saying is forced by societal constraints. This is contradicted through Bowden (1995:173) as he agrees that voice remains extraordinarily popular among composition teachers and has a strong presence in the contemporary classrooms and discussions of writing .