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Estel Boix Noguer

Professor Doutherd
English 5M
23th, November 2017

How to Give Voice to Students

Learning how to write properly is one of the most valuable lessons a person can achieve.
Moreover, the years of learning never stop. As Graham Greene declared in the article All
writing is Autobiographical, writers gather experience during the first twenty years of
education; the rest is observation (67). As students start college, they often have to erase
every other kind of writing style learnt to give space to the academic, detached style. This
type of writing seems professional and more mature, so students are taught that is the one
required for the courses. Fortunately, some authors defend that the personal writing we
learned during our lives should not disappear. An example is Emily Strasser in Writing that
Matters, who asserts that writing should be more than sophisticated sentence structure and
nuanced word choice (200). A reflection about the importance of personal writing has to be
considered. Remembering when we started to write, as well as our first writings and our
evolution as writers is something important during our college studies too. That being said,
people become familiarized with writing by using a personal style, which becomes less used
as the years goes by in someones education. For this reason, despite the importance given to
detached writing style, personal writing should be considered just as important in college
writing.

In college, it is believed that personal writing style has less importance than detached
style. Nevertheless, in the majors related with Arts and Letters, personal writing can be used
more frequently without affecting the writings quality. As the CSUS Handbook: Writing and
Researching in Arts and Humanities states, the theories and the content from this field are
more subjective than other studies, such as science or engineering (138). As a consequence,
Arts and Humanities genres tend to have a personal and engaging style because of their less
prescriptive language. Nevertheless, the Handbook also emphasizes the importance of
personal writing style in the scientific field. Despite the more extended use of formal writing
in Sciences, some writers use personal writing style to get closer to a non-expert audience
(107). When the main themes of focus are the human experiences or ideas, personal writing
does not detract from the value of the content.
Personal writing should be taught more by professors in the higher years of education,
instead of leaving it by one side during the college studies. According to Strasser, teachers
and professors should encourage students to write about their life and own experiences (200).
In the same article, Strasser suggests teachers that the two styles of writing should work
together (201). During studies, detached writing is more used, and required for the majority of
professors. An example is avoiding the use of personal pronouns in order to keep the
professional identity from the student. Nevertheless, it should not be a problem if the student
has difficulties to use detached writing style. It would be also positive to teach assignments
related with personal writing, because it helps students to explain their experiences and ideas
more easily in most of cases.
Despite some students think so, writing in detached style does not make a paper better.
As seen in the study carried out by Ann M. Penrose and Cheryl Geiser, lack of authority is
sometimes reflected within an incorrect use of detached style and creates confusion (11).
During this study, a personal and simple explanation written by a doctorate student shows a
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complete authority inside the conversation of ethics. On the other hand, Strasser states that
students abilities to construct complicated grammatical structures will not be put to
meaningful purposes (200). The importance given to the academic writing is present in most
of courses. However, its use does not mean a correct use of the style and a coherent work. In
most of the circumstances, personal writing explains the topic of discussion better. Students
must learn that an easier explanation of their ideas is more adequate and successful than a
complicated, nonsense writing.
Personal writing also can be used when it is time to create drafts, even if they have to
be in a more academic style. Anne Lamott states on the writing Shitty First Drafts that Just
get it all down in paper, because there may be something great in those six crazy pages that
you would never have gotten to by more rational, grown-up means(528). Lamott reflects
how hard it can be to find the right words and sentences in most of the time, even more if the
writing has to be academic. Creating a first draft directly by using a complicated writing style
is not adequate. Submitting the very first draft as a final draft will not guide the writer to
success. It takes a lot of revisions and edits in order to produce a well written paper. It is
better to write down the ideas by using the most familiarized, personal style for achieving a
better reflection of the themes that are going to be discussed in the paper.
Moreover, students have to be able to dominate (synonym) every style of writing. In
the article A Stranger in Strange Lands, Lucille McCarthy describes a successful student as
someone who can determine what constitutes appropriate texts in each classroom by
interacting with teachers during the lessons and assignments (231). Not using the personal
style during college is something that has to be avoided. As stated on a previous point, it is a
good way to reflect the personal ideas and give voice to students. In addition, despite it is
more used in concrete departments, it can be a source of writing in any stage of someones
career.
To achieve an increase of rhetoric and teach students how to express their ideas,
Pennrose and Geiser suggest an alternative to of information-transfer academic model. The
authors defend that this alternative model would encourage and value students' individual
voices in class (14). This information-transfer model which we are used to limits the use of
rhetoric in students. The compilation of information that academic styles promotes makes
using rhetoric difficult, because of the lack of encouragement of self-expression. For this
reason, personal writing would help students think, and develop ideas and themes fully.

Writing is an important skill for students development; it is a tool used during

everyones career. Academic writing is reinforced during college, and the personal tone in
writing are sometimes not considered as correct in college. However, this does not necessarily
mean forgetting the personal writing style. Personal writing has power in some fields in the
Arts and Humanities, such as Journalism or Philosophy. Also, it can also be used to make an
explanation more clearly for the readers in other subjects. If writers use a complicated,
detached style, it will lead to confusion and misunderstanding for the readers. Then, it is
better to be closer and more subjective during writing. Furthermore, during the important task
of creating drafts the personal writing is a good tool for developing the main ideas in a
simpler way.
The ability of personal writing to reflect experiences and give voice to students is the
strongest point to be aware of. Professors are the ones who decide if this style has to be taught
in order to let students free their minds while writing. What personal writings facilitate is a
well-resonated use of rhetoric, which is a powerful tool that makes people discus the subject
fully, instead of only gather information about it. As a consequence, personal writing makes
rhetoric stronger, and students would have more encouragement in reasoning and discussing
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the subjects of study. For these reasons, personal writing should not be forgotten in higher
education; instead, it should be as important as any other type of writing, and personal writing
style will provide strong benefits to everyone that uses it.