Chloe Brotherton

English 1510

September 14, 2012

Peter Elbow “The Voice in Writing Again: Embracing Contraries”

Getting Ready to Read

I construct my identity through my Facebook profile by my pictures, my ‘about me’, my statuses, and my information. My online identity is different than my at home identity because it’s really easy to be myself on the internet; people who are shy in real life use the internet all the time to express their true identities because typing what you think is a lot easier than saying it to people.

QDJ

1. I define voice as someone’s feelings and opinions. Voices range from aggressive to passive. Everyone has one, and sometimes you don’t even have to speak to have a ‘voice’. Voice is just a form of expression. Elbow’s definition of ‘voice’ is a technique to make something sound more appealing, and I think voice is more than that; it goes beyond someone’s tone of talking.

2. It depends; when reading boring, bland articles I do not hear a voice. But when texting someone I really know or reading an interesting book my imagination hears a voice which makes the piece more interesting. So in that sense Elbow is right. But honestly I don’t like Elbow for some reason I feel like he’s forcing this information down my throat I just find him annoying and a sophistic thinker. I don’t agree with Elbow on page 55, paragraph 67 because writing is supposed to be you being creative and he’s saying we should ignore voice.

AEI

1. Resonance is having an effect on the audience/ reader, and sincerity is being serious in your piece or being sincere. Use these in your writings for an effective writing, because they are both really good tools for writing.

Connecting to Other Readings

2. Voice is definitely something used to influence writing. It’s like listening to a song; a pretty and appealing voice is essential to a good song. People with bad voices aren’t singers, and the same could be said about writing