Creating a Writers Voice

 I wanted to spend some time thinking about a writer's voice. When I read chapter 3 in Tompkins textbook, there was a section about the six traits when it came to the writing craft. This section has been the most helpful to me in terms of how to teach writing. The figure 3-1 on p.58 in Tompkins textbook, was a chart that I spent quite a lot of time looking at. I placed stars and sticky notes on this page to go back to and spend time with it. I teach seniors in high school and I feel that if I gave this chart to my students, they would view it as beneficial. The one trait that made me pause was voice. This one spoke out to me because I often feel that as students are being taught to be writers, teachers can become fixated on the other traits listed such conventions and organization. While these are very important traits to the writing process, I start to think about what happens to students as they get older. The fixation of certain traits stays and we can miss the opportunity to allow students to mature as writers.

I can only speak to my own experience at the high school level but, I think it is because we become so focused on academic writing. We start to not think of students as writers anymore. Writing simply becomes a skill students need to possess to pass a test at the end of the year. This can become a dangerous train of thought and can be why so many high schoolers dread when it comes to writing time. I propose the idea that if we allow students the opportunity to get creative with their writing, there may be more enjoyment. This is why I think the trait of voice can be an important one for high schoolers to pay attention to.

High schoolers should have enough knowledge of the other traits of writing such as ideas, conventions, and organization that they can spend time with other traits such voice and word choice. Voice is described as "the writer's distinctive style" (Tompkins 2012, p.62). When I hear this definition I am thinking about how this could be a chance to allow my students to play around with their own writing and discover in more detail the type of writer they are. This section of the textbook floods my mind with different ideas and lessons that I could do in the classroom to help my students with their creativity. One thing would be to pay attention to the idea of introducing mentor texts. By having my students read and identify a writers tone, I feel that it would help them to introduce tone in their own work. Giving my students writing prompts on different issues and choices will allow them to form their own opinions and ideas (Tompkins 2012, p. 62). I want to keep my students constantly thinking and have them try to be in tune with themselves because it could carry over to their writing. 

For this post, I was able to focus on an aspect from our readings. I wanted to spend time thinking about what happens after the conventions of writing are already known. What happens after students can write a solid piece of academic writing. How can I strengthen my students as writers. My students don't view themselves as writers. They view themselves just as students who have to write because the teacher says so. How can I change that culture? One of the ways in which I change it, I believe is by introducing the idea of having a voice in your writing. I want my students personality to become a part of their work, I believe that is the next step in their ever evolving writing process.