Response to Elbow and Voice

Peter Elbow mentions a few goals that he hopes his essay “Reconsiderations: Voice in Writing Again: Embracing Contraries” achieves. He hopes that the information that he provides will help his audience embrace contraries and step outside of either/or thinking. He asserts that readings can be read in two ways: through the lens of voice and also reading them through the lens of “text” or not-voice”. Elbow writes that by accepting both/and into our methodology it allows us to adopt contrary stances toward voice.

Elbow begins the essay by mentioning that while the 1960’s saw a boom in the idea of getting voice into writing and then was immediately followed by critiques about voice in writing, not much has been said about the topic lately. He writes, “I see a kind of stalemate about voice in writing”.

                Interestingly, Elbow notes that most writing used to occur in the classroom and at work, but now that the internet is a staple, this is no longer true. Writers are not only writing for a judging authority anymore; they are writing for strangers now.

                Elbow goes on to discuss reasons for (and reasons for not) attending voice in texts. He says, “This conflict about voice in our field echoes a much older conflict about the self in language”. As far as his reasons for attending, he notes that voice can be described in terms of style and that can be very helpful to students. Also, readers may enjoy and connect to the writing more because they feel like they can relate to it and, it can feel less intimidating.

                His arguments for not attending include the notion that ignoring voice is necessary for good reading because students improve their ability to analyze. Also, avoidance of voice can be a powerful tool. Elbow notes that sometimes writers don’t want to have their presence felt by the reader.

                I feel that this article gave me a much better understanding of the argument. And in terms of the final project, I missed the last class, but I got an idea of what was discussed by some of my classmates. So far, I like the direction that this revised idea is heading toward.