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Voice Lessons
Understanding the Power of Language
Nancy Dean
Voice: The Color and Texture of Communication
Voice stamps expression with the indelible mark of personality. It is the fingerprint of a person’s language.
The study of voice encourages students to become fully
literate. It teaches them to read between the lines.
Teach the vocabulary of voice to encourage higher
order thinking skills.
Why Teach Voice• Connecting with text• Reading between the lines• Deep reading• Learning text tip off’s that lead to
understanding both content and style• Understanding the different demands
of fiction and non-fiction • Improved writing
Using Art to Teach Voice
Conscious Choices of the Art
What does it say?How do you know? How does he/she do that?
Conscious C
hoices
of the Artist
Using Art to Teach Voice• Color• Shading• Line• Background/foreground• Detail• Degree of abstraction• Angle• Movement
Using Music to Teach Voice
• Volume• Timing• Rhythm• Instrumentation• Register
What does it say?How do you know? How does he/she do that?
Conscious C
hoices
of the Artist
What about Language?
The little pink fishes swam upstream and died.
Does it make you want to cry?
Take the sentence and make it really sad.
How did you do it?
The little pink fishes swam upstream and died.
Elements of Voice• Diction• Detail• Figurative Language • Imagery• Syntax• Tone
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.
Mark Twain
Diction (word choice)
• Should be clear, concrete, and exact• Depends on topic, purpose, and
occasion• Includes connotation and denotation• Imparts freshness and originality
Twenty bodies were thrown out of our wagon. Then the train resumed its journey, leaving behind it a few hundred naked dead, deprived of burial, in the deep snow of a field in Poland.
Elie Wiesel, Night
Diction: Choice of WordsStrong Verbs
I caught a big fish.Get rid of the adjective (big).
Put the power in the verb.
Add an appositive (fish, Moby Dick’s first cousin) or a subordinate clause (fish, which….) (fish, as I ….)
How can I use this?• Talk about strong verbs as you read• Make a list of “perfect” words you and
your class discover• Make a list of “forbidden” words• Have students read each other’s work
and highlight words they like• Have students act out strong verbs• Other….
How can I use this in math?
• Have students re-write word problems with precise verbs
• Have students describe their procedures for solving a problem using precise verbs
• Other….
How can I use it in science?
• Bring in examples of good science writing and examine the use of strong verbs
• Have students describe an experiment using strong verbs (model this first)
• Other….
How can I use it in art and music?
• Have students sketch an action and label it with strong verbs
• Have students analyze the lyrics of songs, searching for strong verbs
• Other….
Detail• Facts, observations, incidents, reasons,
examples, elaboration• Creates a precise mental picture• Brings life and color to description• Shapes the reader’s attitude• Makes an abstraction concrete,
particular and unmistakable
She’s this wrinkled old bat with bad breath, so kids avoid her. I tried to sit downwind of her breath, but it was right after lunch and she kept burpin’ little bursts of garlic.
Sharon M. Draper, Tears of a Tiger
Figurative Language
• Metaphor• Simile• Personification• Hyperbole• Symbol• Irony
Frantic, Cole struggled to fly, but he couldn’t escape the nest. All he could do was open his beak wide and raise it upward toward the sky, the action a simple admission that he was powerless. There were no conditions, no vices, no lies, no deceit, no manipulation. Only submission and a simple desire to live. He wanted to live, but for that he needed help; otherwise his life would end in the nest.
Ben Mikaelsen, Touching Spirit Bear
Imagery (verbal representation of sense experience)
• Includes sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell
• Depends on diction and detail• Can be figurative or not
Something warm was running across the backs of her hands. She saw with mounting horror that it was mixed slime and blood running from the dog’s mouth.
Stephen King, Cujo
Syntax
• Sentence structure• Word order• Sentence elements• Sentence length• Sentence focus• Punctuation
“I’m clean, Carlito, I’m not using.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “I’m not using.” And oh, God, I found my mind thinking, Wonder what it would be like again? Wonder what it would be like again? Wonder what it would be like again? Wonder . . .
Piri Thomas, Down These Mean Streets
A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare. For the most part we miss the hue and fragrance of the thought; as if we could be satisfied with the dews of the morning or evening without their colors, or the heavens without their azure.
Henry David Thoreau
Tone (expression of attitude)• expression of the author’s attitude
toward his/her audience and subject matter.
• expression of the speaker or narrator’s attitude toward his/her listener or subject matter.
• a little of both
What I like in a good author isn’t what he says, but what he whispers.
Logan Pearsall Smith
There are as many different tones as there are feelings.
The Navy guy and I told each other we were glad to’ve met each other. Which always kills me. I’m always saying “Glad to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.
J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Writing Voice Questions
• High order thinking• Not comprehension questions• Focus on the element of voice you
want to teach
