Reading Response No. 7

Getting Ready to Read:

1.      How do you construct an identity using your Facebook profile? What do your different choices of what to include within your profile say about your identity online versus your identity at home?

One constructs an identity on Facebook based upon the information they choose to put on it. If one is friends with people on Facebook that they do not know in real life, then all they know about each other is what is listed on thier Facebook accounts. Identity on Facebook and identity at home can be very different. For example, I don't put everything I say and do on Facebook due to the fact that I'm Facebook friends with my Pastor and his wife. One could also put false information on Facebook and live a completely different life at home.

2. When you typically write academic papers, professors will often outlaw the use of "I" within your writing. How would your writing be different if you were able to use the first-person within this assignment?

If I could use "I" in wiritng assignments, it would be easier to convey to the reader what my argument is and also give examples to support my argument. However, using "I" could make the work come off as biased if the writer does not use it carfully and correctly.

Reading Response:

In his article, "Voice in Writing Again: Embracing Contraries," Elbow attempts to show writing teachers the role that voice plays in writing and reading. He argues that voice is everywhere in all types of writng. Although he says that voice can help both the reader and writer, he says that writers should not use voice in their work, due to the fact that voice can distort the way that the audience interperets the text.

Questions for Discussion and Journaling:

1.      When you look at infographics online, are they voiceless? Can they have an agenda? Based on your answer, do you agree or disagree with Elbow's statement made in paragraph 67 on page 55? why or why not?

Infograpghics are not voiceless and can have an agenda. I do agree with the statement Elbow makes. Teaching writing without voice will force students to produce stronger pieces that are deliever the message effectively.

2. How do you define voice? Have you encountered different definitions of voice in the past and how do they compare to Elbow's definition of voice?

I have not encountered any different definitions of voice, but I define it as the tone of how the author speaks to the audience. This is simalar to the way that Elbow defines voice, but it is also different because Elbow argues that the voice of a piece holds more meaning to the way that the piece is precieved by the audience.

Applying and Exploring Ideas

1.      What happens when you listen to a passage rather than reading it silently? Elbow asserts that it often makes your reading less complicated. How has "ear training" affected your comprehension of something in the past? Based on this, do you believe it's a tool you should use and when should you implement it?

Listening to a passage can make your reading less complicated, but also make you comprehend the material better. By hearing it, you have a better chance of remembering what it was about. Ear training has helped my cromprehension in the past by helping me remember key points of the passage. I believe you should implement ear training either before or after you read it silently.

2. Elbow identifies two kinds of voices linked to any writer: sincerity and resonance. Can you write single sentence definitions, using your own words, for sincerity and resonance? And if you struggle with this exercise, what does this say about trying to use them in your own writing?

Sincerity means to say something and truly mean what you say. Resonance is to reflect on something in writing. Since I srtuggled with the word resonance, I have a feeling that I don't use it in my writing often, if I even have the correct definition.

Connections to other readings

1. Elbow says that our inherently rhetorical voice is used to make arguements. When Kliene said that we adopt a scienttific voice, we use that to make arguements as well. Therefore, the two are interconnected because of the fact that writers use both their scientific and rhetorical voices to make arguments.

2. I do not think that voice is a part of the myth that Allen fights against. I think it is a way out of the "haunting ghost" because one uses their voice to make arguments and influence the audience.

Meta Moment

I do think this is possible. I make this happen in my own work by finding a happy medium of the two when it is appropriate for either side.

Personal Response:

I thought this article was a little confusing when it was talking about the two sides to voice and how they can co-exist, but I also thought it was very informative about voice in writing; something that I had never took the time to examine.