Friday, September 14, 2012

9-14-12 Informal Writing - Peter Elbow



Greg Warman
9-14-12
English 1510
Informal Writing – Peter Elbow

                The main purpose of Peter Elbow was to bring forth the different views about the use and purpose of a writer’s voice. Elbow divides his article into different sections that express the different views about voice in a writer’s paper.  Elbow goes from explaining some views saying that voice in a paper is good, and then turns around and makes known the beliefs of skeptics who say that voice is not our own voice at all, rather, it is the voice of our culture.  The contradiction that occurs so closely to one another in the paper was confusing to me.  Elbow then goes into the current situation involving voice and gives an example of a student of Jane Daniwlewicz turning down one of Jane’s suggested revisions to the student’s paper. Student said they believed that Jane’s revisions took away a part of their “personal voice,” and therefore the student refrained from adhering to her revisions and left their paper the way that it was.  This is the most important part of the entire article.  With this example, it shows that students are capable of developing their writing far enough to where they incorporate their own voice into their work. By recognizing this, a writer can learn to use that same voice so that people can recognize them by their writings.  Also, having control over your voice allows you to change up your voice in a writing, which opens you up to a whole new realm of writing.  Basically, voice is important and it’s vital that writer’s must learn to use their own voice in their writings.  This will help them determine the voices of other writers and help them to develop and personalize their own voices.

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